Wolff explains choice to pit Russell late on during F1 Imola GP

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff has divulged how concerns with George Russell’s tyres led to the pit stop that lost him a place in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Russell had qualified as the lead Mercedes driver once again at Imola and was running one position ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton throughout most of the race.

However, the Briton would detour into the pit lane to revert to the Medium compound with 11 laps go in proceedings, thus dropping him behind Hamilton into seventh.

Wolff has explained that leaving Russell to tour on track at a deteriorating pace on worn Hards would have made him vulnerable to Sergio Perez’s recovering Red Bull.

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Asked how tough it was to convince Russell to adhere to Mercedes’ pit call, Wolff answered: “Not difficult, I think taking the point for the fastest lap was a little goody.

“But the lap times were dropping off as we pitted him early and there was the risk to lose the position a few laps later to Perez

“Beating one of the Red Bull in the circumstances was advantageous and the wear at that moment on Lap 57 with the tyres gone meant that’s why we made the call.”

Russell had no qualms with the decision as he was able to collect the bonus point for the fastest race lap, earning Mercedes an additional point in the championship.

“Yeah, not too sure… [about] the reason,” Russell commented. “Need to talk to the team but I think we were slightly concerned with the tyre.

“At the end of the day as a team we got one extra point, obviously lost the position to Lewis but it’s not something I’m going to be talking about tonight to be honest.

“So yeah, it was a bit of a lonely race for us.”

Despite Hamilton trailing home 35 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen, Russell is convinced that the German marque has made genuine strides on its rivals.

“To be honest I think ourselves, Ferrari and McLaren have closed the gap on Red Bull and pulled away from the midfield,” the Briton assessed.

“So we are making progress, it’s just our two direct rivals have made equal progress.

“So we just need to keep on chipping away, the team are working really hard to bring performance and that’s all we can do for the time being.”