Mercedes orders spark Hamilton frustration

Mercedes’ late Dutch GP team orders initially frustrated George Russell, but the Briton ultimately backed the decision after Kimi Antonelli was restored to P2 behind winner Lando Norris.

Antonelli had been running ahead of Russell before Mercedes pitted the championship leader under a late Virtual Safety Car for fresh soft tyres, temporarily dropping him behind his teammate.

"Does he even have a chance of winning?" Russell asked over the radio when the order came.

Afterwards, Russell accepted the call.

"Kimi was ahead of me anyway, so he deserved to finish ahead," he said.

"Of course, when you’re in the race, you want to fight for every single position, but with the pace, with a new tyre, he would have overtaken anyway."

"So it’s the right decision. We’ve always said as a team, when we’re on different strategies, we’re never going to fight and we’re always going to invert."

Antonelli thanked Russell for making the situation straightforward.

"George was, you know, a great team player," said the teenager, whose championship lead is now 59 points.

"I have to thank him because he made my life a lot easier."

Toto Wolff said the order was primarily about restoring the pre-VSC running order and protecting Mercedes’ constructors’ points rather than favouring Antonelli because he leads the championship.

"We weren’t going to waste time fighting each other when two Ferraris were right on our tail," he said.

"It had nothing to do with who was leading the championship. If the situation had been reversed, we would have done exactly the same thing. That’s how we work, and both drivers know it."

"We prevent the situation that some other teams find themselves in when these things aren’t addressed clearly."

That last point was not lost on Hamilton, who was unhappy Ferrari did not act as decisively with its own cars.

"I’m here to win, and it is difficult when you see... when you’re looking ahead and you see the two Mercedes drivers, they get the call and it’s done and they execute straight away."

"They let Kimi by and let him get on with the race, and I was on a different strategy and it was not the same here. My goal is to lead this team to the world championship, and if you want to win, you have to do these things."

The bigger concern for Mercedes is outright pace.

Antonelli admitted after Norris’ victory that McLaren has now moved clearly ahead. "We’re clearly not the fastest car anymore on the grid," said the Italian.

"We’re probably second or third, at least in today’s race, and McLaren has taken a huge step, especially since Hungary, since the big upgrade package they brought."

Wolff says Mercedes cannot simply respond immediately every time a rival introduces developments.

"We don’t have the money to just add updates to the car as needed," said the team boss.

"If you introduce an update, each of the top teams can gain at least a couple of tenths. And that’s how much you lose. So yes, the road has been a little more challenging than at the beginning of the year."