Mercedes suffered its least competitive qualifying session in a decade with George Russꦉell and Hamilton only able to qualify 11th and 13th respectively for the first sprint race of the year at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. 

After Mercedes failed to get at least one of its cars into Q3 for the first time since♐ the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix, Hamilton was seen engaging in an akward-looking discu💝ssion with team boss Toto Wolff. 

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Wolff appeared visibly displeased while Hamilton kept his helmet on throughout the animated chat. The seven-time world champion refused to elaborate on th༺e details of their conve𒉰rsation after qualifying. 

“It is all internal stuff,🏅 I’d rather not share that,” Hamilton said. “We will just keep working. It is what it is. 

“We will juꦑst keep working hard. Eꦓach weekend is a rescue.”

It was already looking very unlikely that either Mercedes driver would have the pace to progress into the top-🔯1o shootout, but their hopes of improving were dashed as heavy rain drenched the circuit during a red flag period after Carlos Sainz crashed his Ferrari. 

Hamilton had narrowly avoided his second Q1 elimination of the season thanks to a last-gasp improvem🔴ent that put him just 0.004s clear of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda. 

“It was♕n’t a great session,” he admitted. “Naturally, it is disappointing. We came here with optimism. Everyone has worked harꦺd at the factory. It is disappointing. I think we underperformed as a team today. 

“There are things we should have done that we did not do. We’ll work as hard as we can to move up in the sprint race - it will be a difficult race. Hopefully tom𒐪orrow is better weather-wise.” 

‘Things can only go up’ for Mercedes 

Russell revealed that tyre warm-up had been an issue once a🧔gain for Mercedes at Imola and was left to rue the timi♒ng of the red flag in Q2 that ultimately ruined both drivers’ qualifying. 

“We've always struggled a little bit to get the temperature in the 💧tyre and we are always seemingly taking a bigger jump on the second lap,” said Russell.

“We sa🐭w that in Australia as well when we compare to the Alpines and McLarens, they were a first lap qualifier and we had to do it on the third lap or even fifth lap. So, it was a bit of a shame with how the red f🃏lags panned out today. 

"But 🍌obviously, if there is a weekend to not be where we want to be, the sprint weekend is the one to do it. It’s not ideal but we have a chance to recover those positions tomorrow.” 

And Russell is unsure about Mercedes’ chances of improving in Saturday’s sprint race, the result of which will determine the gridꦕ for Sunday’s grand p🦂rix. 

“Usually in these sprint𒅌 races, not so much happens,” he added. “It will be interesting with these ne♉w cars if we can follow a bit closer. 

“But I don't think there are en🃏ough laps with enoug🌃h degradation for us to take our advantage when we are generally stronger compared to our current rivals, which this weekend aren't the top two teams. 

“Let's see what we can do. We've got Sunday as well. It can 🐷only go up."