Toto Wolff has stated that he is hoping for two podium finishes for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi following yet another difficult weekend, this time at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Silver Arrows took the chequered flag with Russell running down in P8 and Hamilton one place further up the order in P7. However, those results did not tell the full story of a Grand Prix that offered up plenty of moments of chaos for both of their drivers.
A ten-point haul was nothing short of a disaster for Mercedes’ hopes of finishing second in the Constructors’ Championship. With Charles Leclerc snatching P2 on the final lap and Carlos Sainz classified in P6, Ferrari made up considerable ground in that battle, cutting the Silver Arrows’ advantage to just four points ahead of the season finale.
Discussing his hopes for the final race of what has been a testing 2023 campaign, Wolff didn’t hold back in his targets. He told Sky Sports F1: “We have seen pace-ish today. I think we can hopefully recover and score solid podiums.”
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The Mercedes boss was also feeling positive about the inaugural Las Vegas GP, stating: “I wouldn’t change a lot. I would change qualifying maybe from midnight to 10pm, like the race start. So you can still have the roads open long at Vegas and have dinner for the fans. Other than that, it was a perfect event.”
While the result was extremely frustrating when the chequered flag waved, both Russell and Hamilton demonstrated some impressive pace with their recovery drivers. The latter was caught up in a lap-one tangle with Sainz and also suffered a puncture following a racing incident with Oscar Piastri, but still managed to recover to the points.
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“A really challenging race,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. “I started on the hard tyre which was tricky at the beginning. I got a big hit from someone behind, I think it was Carlos and tried to not hit the cars that had spun around. I fell back five or six places.
“Then after that just making my way back. I was feeling great, the tyres were feeling good, the pace was strong. I went up the inside of Piastri, I don’t really know exactly what happened, I obviously got the hit from behind. I think it was a racing incident.”
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