Mercedes say they took “preventative” action in making the decision to retire 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell’s car during the F1 British Grand Prix.

Russell claimed pole position at Silverstone and led the early exchanges of Sunday’s epic wet-dry race. But while running fourth behind Red Bull's 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen, Mercedes suddenly instructed Russell to r🎀etire after he 👍encountered a water system leak.

Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed the problem was detected early in the race 🌼and the team decided to call Russell in amid fears his engine could suffer irreparable damage.

"I mean unfortunately we knew that we had an issue relatively early in the race, so we were tracking this from the first stint,” Sღhovlin explained in the team’s latest post-race debrief video.

“We didn't know that it was going to be terminal, but it's all linked to a lea🌞k that was in the water system that was causing the pressure to start to drift, and ultimately when we stopped the car, it was to protect the power unit.

“So we knew that we were never going to finish the race. What you don't want to do is finish the race and destroy the power unit, then you'll be lookin🃏g at a penalty possibly later in the year.

“So it was preventative, but there was no🧸 way that we were going to get to the chequered flag.”

Had Russell been able to continue in the race, Mercedes reckon he would have ꦕbeen on course to finish a “minimum” of fourth and potentially challenge for a spot on the podium.

“With a race like that, with the changing conditions, it's quite ha🏅rd to say this is where we would 🅺have finished,” Shovlin said.

“If it had been a dry race start to finish🔥, looking at how George got off the line, how he was able to build a gap, I think he would have had a prꦆetty straightforward afternoon.

“But if you take the point where we actuall🍷y decided to retire the car, we were on intermediates, George was in P4, he was closing in on Max, so that was looking good.

“And to get him on the podium, he would have probably had to overtake Max at that point realistically, becaus🥂e we called the stop lap correct with Lewis when we went to dry tyr🤡es.

“So I think earlier it might have been a bit too damp.🧜 So as I said, minimum of P4, ඣbut there would have been a shot at it if he could have passed Max on track on the Inter.”