Mercedes chief Toto Wolff was conflicted about going on the podium to celebrate Kimi Antonelli’s Monaco Grand Prix podium amid another tough weekend for George Russell.World championship leader Antonelli drove superbly from pole position to claim a fifth successive victory, while some major misfortune resulted in Russell finishing outside of the points.
The result extended the gap between the Mercedes pair to 68 points with Russell, who has gone four races without a podium, also losing second in the drivers’ standings to his former team-mate, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.
Formula 1’s podium ceremony requires the team of the winning driver to send up a representative to collect a prize on behalf of the constructor, a role that Wolff made a rare appearance in on Sunday.
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Highlights from the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix
“I haven’t gone to a podium for 10 years because it’s always difficult to balance between one side of the garage being happy, the other one not,” said Wolff, who lives in Monaco.
“Today I couldn’t avoid it because the board member that I wanted to go to has said he needs to catch a flight, and then the team said, you’ve got to go, it’s the home place.
“While standing there, I’m always with mixed feelings.”
While Antonelli has exceeded expectations in driving superbly to claim the first five wins of his career in succession, Russell has endured some significant misfortune.
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Watch all of George Russell’s unlucky moments so far this 2026 Formula 1 season
The Brit was leading Antonelli amid a thrilling battle in Montreal in May when a power unit failure ended his race.Then in Monaco, Russell was unfortunate to receive a contentious pit-lane speeding penalty, which Mercedes then compounded by failing to serve it correctly, earning him a more severe drive-through penalty that dropped him from third to outside the points.Wolff said: “The Montreal race was his to win. We let him down. In Monaco, probably we could have had a podium if not for the…
2026-06-09 12:30:00
