Audi F1 chief hits back at big rivals Mercedes after Toto Wolff quip

Audi racing director Allan McNish has laughed off Toto Wolff's comments about his team at the Singapore Grand Prix last weekend.

Wolff's Mercedes star George Russell had to fight his way up from 19th on the grid at the tight street circuit after taking a heavy grid penalty for an engine change, and was tussling with Audi's Nico Hulkenberg for eighth in the dying laps.

The Mercedes boss joked that the late battle for position had given Audi some rare TV airtime, with directors and producers usually focusing on fights for the places up at the top of the field.

The German driver held off Russell to tie Audi's best grand prix finish since they entered the sport at the start of the season, with McNish later firing a friendly barb back at his Mercedes counterpart.

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McNish bites back at Wolff

"It was very nice of Toto, but we got airtime because we were ahead of one of his cars, I suppose," the Scottish former F1 driver told the media when asked about Wolff's words.

"I thought that [Russell] had two or three laps, and if he didn't overtake Nico in those two or three laps, then Nico was going to be able to defend, and that was actually the case, because he was very good at the points on the circuit he needed to be.

"Actually, once the freshness of the tyre, as George had much fresher tyres had gone, then actually, he didn't have the performance to overtake, like he did with Gasly, and we can be quite happy on our side.

"I suppose it is the first Audi-Mercedes battle."

Audi improving over first season in F1

The German team are, perhaps unsurprisingly, struggling somewhat for power in their first foray into F1 power unit production, but McNish hailed Hulkenberg's performance on Sunday as a positive sign.

"It wasn't easy to come through, and Hadjar was well, but I expected George to cut through, Hadjar less so, but even Hadjar, when he got into clean air, couldn't catch [Hulkenberg].

"So at that point, in the last 10 laps of the race, we were equal to a Red Bull and equal to a Mercedes, which is not bad. We'll take that."

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