Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has admitted there is “no excuse” for his team’s underwhelming performance in qualifying at the Australian Gra♉nd Prix⛄.

For the third weekend in a row, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:George Russell was the fastest Mercedes driver in qualifying but he could only take seventh as he ended up over seven tenths of a second adrift of Red Bull’s 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen.

Meanwhile, teammate168澳洲5最新开奖结果: Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in Q2 inℱ a lowly 11th as the seven-time world champion suffered his worst qualifying performance in Melbourne since 2010.

Mercedes had found encouraging performance gains in 𝓡final practice on Saturday morning, with Hamilton getting within a tenth of the fastest time, only for the team’s competitiveness to dramatically drop away in qualifying.

"It's especially underwhelminꦅg because we were within a tenth in FP3,” Mercedes team principal Wolff told🎉 Sky.

“The conditions were a little bit different but there 𒐪is no excuse. We have a car that's difficult and you can be narrowly in or out of the window.

"As much as I'm annoyed myself about saying thi🧔🌟s for a long time, we just need to continue working on it.

“It's not becauꦏse of a lack of trying but we are where we are and it's not good enough.”

While Wolff conceded it is an “illusion” to think Mercedes can clไose the gap to Red Bull in the short-term, he still believes the team can tu🌱rn things around with their W15 car.

"It's an illusion to get closer to Re🍌d Bull in the shoꦅrt-term, but I still have to believe there is more in this car,” Wolff added.

"This morning it was not a bad car,ꦑ but it's so tricky🐻 to go in and out of the performance window and we have to continue to work on it.”