Mercedes reveal what caused Antonelli's retirement at Barcelona
Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed that loss of oil pressure led to the issue that saw Andrea Kimi Antonelli retire from the Spanish Grand Prix.
Following a tough weekend at Monte Carlo, Mercedes looked very strong in qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix. George Russell secured fourth place on the grid while his team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli qualified sixth.
The Briton might have expected to complete the same start that he had last year at Barcelona, but he endured different fortunes to what he achieved a year ago. Russell was picked off by Lewis Hamilton at Turn 1 before he was also overtaken by Charles Leclerc into Turn 5.
He then played the long game and managed to overtake his former team-mate with an undercut strategy. At the safety car restart, he was adamant to overtake Max Verstappen, as he dived down the inside into Turn 1 but made contact with the Dutchman.
Red Bull then instructed Verstappen to hand the place back to Russell following their scarp at Turn 1. With just three laps left to go, the Dutchman slowed down at Turn 5, and Russell completed the move on the outside, but the reigning champion appeared to speed back up again, leading to contact between the pair.
The four-time F1 champion would eventually let Russell through into Turn 11, and the Mercedes driver finished in P4.
His team-mate Antonelli looked on for points today despite losing out at the start as he ran wide, but his race ended in the gravel after an apparent Power unit issue for his second DNF in three races.
Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed that loss of oil pressure led to the issue that saw Andrea Kimi Antonelli retire from the Spanish Grand Prix.
"As expected, we faced a very hot track in Barcelona today and the tyre overheating challenge did not spare us. George could have been in the fight for the podium though; his pace looked good enough to close on the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in the last laps but with the tyres overheating, it was hard for him to get close enough to attempt a pass.
"With the unfortunate loss of positions on the opening lap, battling back to P3 was just too much of a stretch. Kimi meanwhile had a tough afternoon. He was suffering from some instability in the high-speed corners, which isn't ideal in these hot conditions.
Shovlin continued: "His race pace was solid but there were a few points in the race where he had to drop into traffic, which cost overall time. Unfortunately, he lost oil pressure in his final stint and his car switched off at Turn 10. We don't know the root cause of that issue yet; the Power Unit will be returned to Brixworth for investigation.
"It's always disappointing to lose a car from the points with a reliability issue; we've not been strong enough in that area over the last three races so we will need to tackle that urgently.
"We've got some time now to regroup after what has been a challenging triple header, but we will be working hard to come back strong in Montreal."
