Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas’ Germany horror relived as Mercedes make Red Bull joke

Lewis Hamilton's 'natural ability is fantastic' says Button

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Mercedes relived a horrific race for Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas at the German Grand Prix in 2019 on social media. The usually well-oiled machine had a day to forget in the rain-affected race which saw both drivers crash out and fail to finish.

The race marked the team’s 125th anniversary in motorsport and they opted to drive with a special livery.

At the race in Hockenheim two years ago, the Silver Arrows were dressed in classic attire and coloured the car white.

As a reaction to Red Bull’s one-off livery, set to be on show this weekend as a thank you gesture to departing supplier Honda, Mercedes is now making fun of itself and the race in Germany where it drove with the new design.

The reigning constructors’ champions tweeted the following alongside an upside down face emoji: “special livery? We tried that once.”

Mercedes’ race began to go pear-shaped when polesitter Hamilton lost control at the penultimate corner, skating off track.

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The Briton had a broken front wing and was forced to enter the pits beyond the legal point of entry, which resulted in a five-second time penalty and surprised his team who weren’t expecting him to pit.

An ill-advised tyre change and another spin saw Hamilton finish in a lowly 11th place, compounding a miserable day at the office.

Bottas looked set for a podium, having raced a solid race, but made a mistake when trying to overtake Lance Stroll and crashed heavily, putting him out of the Grand Prix and consigning Mercedes to their first pointless race of the season.

Christian Horner’s men followed McLaren in using a new design this season, after the British team joined forces with Gulf to create a design using the iconic blue and orange.

Alfa Romeo also used a special livery this season, adding some flashes of green for their home race at the Italian Grand Prix.

Ahead of Ferrari’s 1,000th F1 race at the Tuscan Grand Prix in 2020, the iconic team used a special edition livery to mark the occasion.

Red Bull ran a special white livery in honour of David Coulthard’s last race at the end of the 2008 season.

Sadly his grand send-off did not go according to plan as he started 14th on the grid and after making contact with Nico Rosberg and team-mate Kazuki Nakajima, the Scot was forced to retire from the race.

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Hamilton currently leads the Drivers’ Championship standings by a slender margin of just two points after his remarkable win in Russia last time around.

The 36-year-old registered his 100th Grand Prix victory by taking the chequered flag in Sochi after Lando Norris spurned a golden opportunity to claim the spoils late on.

The Mercedes man will be desperate for the same result in Turkey in order to stretch his advantage over Verstappen ahead of the final six races of the season.

However, it seems as though he could be forced to start from the back of the grid at Istanbul Park as Mercedes are considering the possibility of replacing Hamilton’s engine to provide him with a fresh power unit for the championship run-in.

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