Mercedes release statement following Russell’s Spa disqualification

“We have to take our disqualification on the chin. We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it. 

“We will go away, evaluate what happened and understand what went wrong. To lose a 1-2 is frustrating and we can only apologise to George who drove such a strong race. 

“Lewis is of course promoted to P1; he was the fastest guy on the two-stop and is a deserving winner. 

“Despite the disqualification, there are many positives we can take from this weekend. 

“We had a car that was the benchmark in today’s race across two different strategies. Only a few months ago, that would have been inconceivable. 

“We head into the summer break having won three of the past four races. 

“We will look to come back after the shutdown rejuvenated and with the aim of
maintaining our positive trajectory.”