Toto Wolff claims Mercedes gap to Red Bull a LIE after 'MEGA' Spanish GP result

Toto Wolff

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Wolff claims Mercedes gap to Red Bull a LIE after 'MEGA' Spanish GP result

Max Verstappen stormed to a 23-second Grand Slam win in Barcelona but Wolff insisted Mercedes are closer

Joe Ellis

Sunday 4 June 2023 19:57

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Toto Wolff believes Mercedes are much closer to Red Bull than the Spanish Grand Prix may suggest.

Max Verstappen cruised to a 23-second victory and his third Grand Slam in F1 while the Silver Arrows had to settle for second and third.

That was still an exceptional result after a torrid qualifying saw Lewis Hamilton start fifth and George Russell 12th following a tangle between the two of them.

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Wolff admitted that the temperatures helped their cause at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya but said they still believe they are closer to Red Bull than 23 seconds over a race distance.

George Russell, in particular, was in fine form to come from 12th to third

'Mega' Mercedes making progress

“We had a good race car. Lewis probably came out a good five or six seconds behind Max when he cleared Carlos,” Wolff told Sky Sports.

”I think we are just much closer. You see where the benchmark is. It’s at the end, more than 20 seconds, maybe it was 15 in reality, but that’s just not where we aim to be.

“We just need to chip away. We are really good at grinding. Once there is a setup direction and a development direction, we just go for it and we have that advantage in terms of aero time.

“But we also need realistic today. The temperatures really suited us. It was nice and fresh, not too cold, not too hot. The car was in the absolute mega window.”