Mercedes have been left scratching their heads after suffering their “worst performance of the year” at the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

After 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell challenged for pole position, Mercedes endured a disappointing and rather anonymous race in Jeddah. The Briton slipped from third on the grid to a distant fifth, ahead of rookie teammate168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Kimi Antonelli.

Russell ended up half a minute down on the front with fifth and sixth representing ꦡMercedes’ joi﷽nt-worst result of the 2025 season so far.

More concerning was the Silver Arrows’ g⭕eneral lack of race pa♛ce, something which left team principal Toto Wolff perplexed.

“It was clearly our worst performance of the year so far,” Wolff said. “The pace⛄ just dropped away with blistering, overheating tyres and so far we haven’t got an explanation.”

“You manage your expectations being the second quickest - and even that is not obviously what we would wish to achieve - and ꦺthen you see the race panning out li𝄹ke it did.

"It just add▨s to the frustration of the situation.”

Despite their underwhel🧔ming performance in Saudi Arabia, Mercedes remain a solid second in the constructors’ championship on 111 points, 77 adr🍒ift of leaders McLaren.

George Russell’s tyres felt like a balloon

Russell blamed overheating for his lack of pace, explaining that his tyres felt like “a balloon” in the closing stages. He was heard airing concerns about a potential failure over team radio as he nursed his tyres tꦰo the end.

“I was pushing hard to stay with Max at the beginning of the second stint,” ཧRussell told Sky Sports F1. “But I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold on and🅰 we fell off that cliff towards the end.

“I was dropping a second a lap in the last 15 laps, but to be fair, we just didn’t have the pace and even if I had managed more, I t🍰hink I still would have come home in P5.

“We know that it’s a bit of a♐ weakness of our car at the moment. And coming home P5  on a bad day - we’ll take it - but we need to try and improve it quickly.

“It’s about how fa❀st we're going through these corners, and for whatever reason, we've generated more temperature than our rivals.

“Then suddenly you get to a point where the tyres are like a balloon. We had blistering on the front🏅, blistering on the rear, and then suddenly you just have no grip from the tyre at all.”