Mercedes does not understand limitation caused by the overheating of rear tyres

Although Mercedes displayed encouraging pace over a single flying lap in qualifying, the W16 faltered in the 63-lap Imola race as both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli suffered by overheating rear tyres.

Mercedes driver George Russell displayed eye-catching pace in qualifying, and a smart move to complete his last push lap in Q3 on Pirelli's mediums enabled him to fight for pole position.

Beating McLaren's Lando Norris, the Briton ended up third on the grid. However, he lost a lot of tyre life fighting Norris at the start, and pitted very early as a result.

He endured then some misfortune with the virtual safety car, but he recovered some places by not stopping under the late Safety Car. However, being on older tyres, his former team-mate Lewis Hamilton picked him off, and he ultimately finished the Imola round in P7.

His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli struggled for pace in qualifying, ending up only 13th on the grid on home turf. While he displayed better race pace, he stopped on track with a throttle problem which triggered a long safety car interruption.

Having served as team representative in the absence of team boss Toto Wolff, Bradley Lord did not deny that the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix has been the Brackley-based outfit's worst race so far in 2025.

"That was comfortably our most difficult Grand Prix of the season so far. To come away with P7 and a DNF is far below the standards we set ourselves as a team.

"From the early laps, George reported a lack of rear stability, and he struggled to keep the rear tyre temperatures under control, which led to accelerated degradation. This forced us into an early stop, and onto a two-stop strategy. He made his second stop under the VSC for Esteban's retirement, and had battled his way back into the points when the Safety Car was called out for Kimi's DNF.

"It was clear that we would remain on track during this, and George then battled hard to the flag - he was unable to hold off Lewis's fresher-tyred Ferrari behind but then was able to hold position to the finish.

"For Kimi, we ran an offset strategy, starting on the hard tyre and making up a position at the start. He was running solidly when we took advantage of the VSC to swap to the Medium tyre and tried to take this to the finish.

"Kimi managed the stint well but then began to suffer a degrading throttle problem, which ultimately stopped the car on lap 45 - the first retirement of his F1 career.

While Mercedes looked to be a contender for pole position on Saturday, the W16's race pace hit a limitation due to the overheating of the rear tyres.

"Overall, the performance picture was a sobering one today: while George qualified strongly, we were unable to race the cars around us and suffered a significant pace limitation from tyre overheating on the rear axle.

"The primary focus of work in the days ahead to understand why we suffered so badly, and then to make the most of the opportunity we have to bounce back next weekend in Monaco."