Toto Wolff ‘annoyed’ and ‘angry’ at Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes woes continue

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff was 'annoyed' and 'angry' with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton after the teams' early-season woes continued at Imola, Nico Rosberg believes.

The defending Constructor's Champions have struggled to find their rhythm in the 2022 season despite sitting second in the standings, finding themselves way off the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull. Their troubles continued in Friday's qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Sprint, with both Hamilton and teammate George Russell only narrowly squeezing through to the second round.

Mercedes' chances of making it through to Q3 always looked slim and, with rain falling at Imola following a red flag, their fate was sealed – becoming the first time since the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix that neither Mercedes made it through to the final round of qualifying.

Towards the end of the second round of qualifying, cameras showed coverage inside the Mercedes garage where Hamilton had exited his vehicle before the session came to a close and was pictured involved in fierce discussions with team principal Wolff.

While Hamilton refused to clarify what was said in those discussions, his former teammate Nico Rosberg issued his verdict on the events.

“It's very difficult to know what was said. If I had to speculate now it looks to me that Toto was annoyed about something that Lewis had done," he told Sky Sports F1.

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“Which it might be understandable. Lewis could have been very frustrated on the internal Mercedes garage radio or something. Complaining that they didn't follow his thoughts on what they should have done on strategy or complaining about the car or something.

“Lewis also got out the car before Q2 was over and it might be still a one percent chance the track could still be in a good shape towards the end of qualifying you know, so maybe Toto was angry about that.

“It just shows the stress is starting to get there, rather than going forward they are actually going backwards. They were almost two seconds a lap slower yesterday in qualifying, their worst qualifying in ten years. Naturally the tension is going to build internally.”

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