Lewis Hamilton endured another qualifying session to forget in Abu Dhabi as he was well-beaten by team-mate George Russell.
Toto Wolff stated that he was ‘fed up’ after qualifying at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Mercedes failed to capitalise fully on Carlos Sainz’s Q1 elimination when Lewis Hamilton failed to make the cut for Q3.
After a mediocre final run Hamilton was sitting on the fringes of the top ten before team-mate George Russell improved to set his team-mate on course for back-to-back Q2 exits.
There was a little more for Wolff to celebrate in Q3 as Russell managed to deliver on the potential that he demonstrated during FP3 and qualify on the second row.
Even so, there was a catch to the success, as Charles Leclerc’s incredible lap put his Ferrari on the front row alongside polesitter Max Verstappen.
Speaking about Mercedes’s night with Sky Sports F1, Wolff remarked, “FP3 was very strong. Norris would have qualified, by the way, and was probably capable of being there.
It simply didn’t work out. That’s most likely what was in the vehicle. There were greater anticipations. I’m tired of hearing justifications for why things didn’t work out.
“We performed well in the heat but poorly in the cold. It has been the other way around on [previous] days. We will be arriving with a new car, and I’m glad that this was the final qualifying of the season.”
In the Constructors’ Championship, Silver Arrows leads Ferrari by just four points going into Sunday’s race, but the Scuderia has gained momentum after Leclerc’s P2 finish in Las Vegas.
Nonetheless, since the beginning of the weekend on the opposite side of the garage, Mercedes’ competitors have been trailing behind after Sainz raised the red flag in FP2 with a significant shunt on the exit of Turn 2.
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