Wolff reveals Mercedes data showed they’d finish 1-2 after second pit stop

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton made a late second pit stop when running in P2 and P4 respectively having been unable to overtake on track.

On fresh medium tyres, Russell and Hamilton breezed past Charles Leclerc, before closing up to the back of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris.

Due to some tactical driving from Sainz, the Mercedes duo were unable to overtake Norris, thus settling for third and fourth going into the final lap.

Hamilton would eventually finish third after Russell crashed out on the final lap.

Speaking to Sky after the race, Wolff said: “Super that Lewis is on the podium. He had a brilliant race and and had pace at the end. Just a shame for George because he worked hard for that.

“It could have been a good third and fourth, lots of points, but now we lost 22 [points] against Ferrari."

Wolff admitted Mercedes had zero chance of winning the race if they stayed out under the VSC.

“It was so difficult to win the race if we were just static,” he added. “So we said let’s go for it and we just went for it and in the end it’s a podium for Lewis and that’s great.

“I don’t think we would have been able to win [by staying out] that’s why we took the risk. We knew worst case it was third and fifth, best case the win.

“When we came out with several laps, it [the data] showed first and second.”