Horrific Mercedes mix-up causes heartbreak in dramatic Sakhir Grand Prix

What should have been a dream day for Mercedes quickly became a nightmare as a horrible double blow rocked the reigning champs.

Mercedes was on track to dominate the Sakhir Grand Prix even without Lewis Hamilton until confusion in pit lane crippled the team with a disastrous double blow.

Young gun George Russell was called up to replace seven-time world champion Hamilton, who was ruled out after contracting COVID-19, but his dream debut for the Silver Arrows turned into a nightmare.

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Both he and teammate Valtteri Bottas were called into the pits and Russell arrived first. The Mercedes crew had double stacked fresh sets of tyres for both drivers, leading to confusion over which tyres were meant for which driver.

The support staff gave Russell a mixed set of tyres by accident, with one of them actually meant for Bottas.

Then when Bottas came into pit lane there was more trouble. A wrong tyre and a brake fire kept him stationary for 27 seconds and just like that Mercedes’ race was also going up in smoke.

Russell had to come back in because you’re not allowed to compete with a mixed set of tyres, the unscheduled pit stop costing him valuable time.

Bottas and Russell were leading the race before the drama but dropped from 1-2 to 4-5 after the horrible mix-up.

To his credit, Russell didn’t give up and pulled off a sensational passing move on his teammate soon after as he remained in the hunt for his first ever podium finish in F1. However, with seven laps remaining, he was rocked by a killer blow.

The Brit was forced back into the pits after suffering a tyre puncture and his hopes were officially crippled. He dropped all the way to 14th and let out howls of anguish over the team before eventually finishing the race in ninth.

“I don’t know what to say. That was taken away from us twice,” he said. “I’m gutted, I’m absolutely gutted.

“Can’t really put it into words to be honest. I’ve had races where I’ve had victories taken away from me, but twice? I couldn’t believe it.”

Pit lane was not a fun place to be for Mercedes.

The news wasn’t any better for Bottas. His hard tyres were fading fast as the race wound down and he was being rapidly overtaken by rivals, slipping all the way to eighth as Mercedes blew a golden chance to once again spray champagne over two drivers on the podium.

Mercedes’ loss was Racing Point’s gain as Sergio Perez claimed a memorable debut win. Renault’s Esteban Ocon celebrated his first podium by coming second and Lance Stroll kept his nose ahead of some fast-finishing rivals to round out the podium in third.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff apologised to Russell on the radio and was shattered when he fronted up to the Sky Sports cameras to explain what went wrong. He called it a “colossal f*** up” and said a radio failure in the garage meant there was a breakdown in communication between the tyre crews, leading to one of Bottas’ tyres being fitted to Russell’s car.

Russell escaped disqualification but Mercedes was fined $AUD32,600.

“One of the tyre crews didn’t hear the call,” Wolff said. “We had a radio failure in the garage and when the car came in they didn’t know that we had to change the tyres, or the wrong tyres, and this is why we exited with the wrong set of tyres.

“Technical failures happen, that wasn’t any human error.

“We need to find out, we’ve checked it now, we’ve seen it’s not functioning but we don’t know why. These things happen. We need to learn from it.

“It was very emotional because if you’re in your first race in a Mercedes and you should have won it for driving a monumental race, there’s not a lot you can say.”

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin added: “As the safety car came out, we were calling for the crew to be ready, and for the tyres for each car to come into the pitlane.

“At the time that message was going out, another radio message for a very brief period prevented one of the key messages getting through to one set of tyre collectors. It’s something that’s been lurking in there and could have caught us out at any time over the past few seasons.

“The ensuing problems were all a function of this single issue and certainly not the fault of anyone in our pit-crew who have done a great job all year.”

Sergio Perez was on cloud nine.

There were tears of joy elsewhere in the paddock as emotions ran high for a suite of drivers not used to tasting the sort of success so often reserved for Hamilton, Bottas and Co. Perez and Ocon openly wept as they celebrated the high points of their careers.

Carlos Sainz was fourth and Aussie Daniel Ricciardo was fifth on a bright day for Renault, followed by Red Bull’s Alex Albon (sixth) and Daniil Kvyat (seventh).

Amazingly, Perez doesn’t even have a seat for next season after being told by racing Point he’s unwanted in 2021. His win might convince a different suitor to come calling and offer him a career lifeline.

“It just gives me a bit more peace with myself, to be honest,” Perez said. “What happens is not so much in my hands at the moment.

“But if I’m not on the grid next year, I’ll be back in 2022.”

Earlier, big dogs Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc were rubbed out after colliding in lap one. Verstappen accused the Ferrari star of diving on the inside and taking away the Dutchman’s room, and Leclerc knew he was in the wrong, accepting blame for the mishap.