Russell was once again the fastest Mercedes 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:in𝐆 qualifyin﷽g at Baku as he finished fifth, two places and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:0.212s ahead of Hamilton, marking the third consecutive race that Russe🌌ll has outpaced the seven-t๊ime world champion. 

But Wolff revealed that Hamilton has been running an experimental set-up that did not work and cost him performance as Mercedes continues to battle the bouncing issues that have dogged their car s❀o far this season.

"Lewis has been trying some quite experimental parts on the car ꧅and there was a different floor solution on his car that didn’t work,” said Wo꧅lff after qualifying. 

“The car was porpoising more ꦫand botto❀ming-out to the point that it became dangerous and then he couldn’t extract the performance. So yes, it was a different spec.”

Why is Russell faster than Hamilton?

Asked about Russell’s current run of form against Hamilton, Wolff replied: “I think it’s too early to t𒊎ry to identify a pattern, because I’m very close to it and I see that in one session one is faster and then in another session the other is faster. 

“Because the car is on a knife’s edge, if you put a foot wrong in terms of experiments on the car - which need to be done in order for us to ღlearn how to perform and where to put the car - there’s two or three tꦏenths immediately between them. 

“The last two or three races these experiment൩൩s have gone wrong with Lewis and not with George.” 

Speaking about his issues, Hamilton told Sky: “It was a really difficult qualifying session because we are constantly pus𝄹hing. We have a very, very small [🌌set-up] window.

“Everything we try doesn’t give us what we want, so we’re making l🔜ots of changes, but we always come out with the same conclusion – which is mostly often bouncing, which loses us a lot of performance.

“But, all of the performan✱ce is when you get the car low, so we say ‘ok, let’s just take a beating in our backs and in our necks and just get our car as low as pos꧃sible to gain us performance.”

Is Mercedes any closer to solving its issues? 

Mercedes have been struggling with porpoising more than any other team but thought they had𓃲 taken a step forward after introducing updates at Barcelona. 

Ho𒅌wever, the violent bouncing has returned this weekend in Baku, leading to Russell calling for a re-think of the rules surrounding the new generation F1 cars amid concerns over driver health. 

Wolff stressed that Mercedes contin𝔍ues to believe in their car concept and hopes the experiments conducted in Baku and at next weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix will help the team make a breakthrough. 

“We are at t⛎he moment not in the hunt for a race win on merit,” he said. “We are a good [way] behind the top teams. 

“And we ju♔st need to see those sessions not with the view of optimising the single session but with a view ofꩵ understanding. And this is what we’re doing and what we’re going to do tomorrow and in Montreal.” 

But Wolff said that Mercedes wi♐ll continue to prioritise a long-term fix over a short-term gain.🌜 

“I think we know what the root cause of our problem is, but we don’t have the answers yet of what the best solution will b🧜e,” he added. “And this is what we are experimenting with at the moment. 

“I still think the📖re is a short-term fix꧟ which is making us much more competitive, but it might not explain everything. 

“I’d like to get the car in the right position for the second half of thꦫe yea🐻r and also for next year. So the learning is more key than short-term optimisation for a weekend.”