Russell: We were just dead slow

Russell did a great job to qualify third for the race, but he wasn't able to keep that position as Mercedes once again fell prey to the high track temperatures, a condition their W16 does not enjoy.

In the end, the Briton had to settle for seventh, which would've been worse had the race been a bit longer, as Williams' Carlos Sainz was chasing him down and finished less than a second behind in eighth.

Russell had to pit earlier, which proved to be costly, as those who extended their first runs benefitted from the Virtual Safety Car that came out after the Briton's teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli retired with car issues.

"We were just dead slow," Russell vented after the race. "The trends are pretty clear. When it's hot, we're slow. When it's cold, we're quick, That was the same last year.

"We've been doing everything with the setup to try and find solutions, but there's clearly something more fundamental in the car.

"It's not the first race for this season where we've been slower than Ferrari, even slower or the same pace as Williams, but we've just somehow managed to get a result out of it on these occasions.

"But today we were very lucky to finish P7 in all honesty," Russell insisted. "I wouldn't say we are running out of ideas to solve the tyres, but as I said, it's sort of baked into the car.

"You look at Ferrari a few years ago, they used to be mega quick in qualifying and slow in the race. Now they've kind of done a U-turn, and they also don't really understand why that is.

"So we need to find a better compromise, especially ahead of the next race. We're approaching summer and it doesn't really bode well for us. We need to think quick," Russell warned.

It was an awful race for Mercedes in general, as Antonelli struggled for pace all weekend, qualifying 13th, and then heading for an early shower in the race after his car called it a day on lap 46 of 63.

Speaking in Mercedes post-race report, Antonelli said: "Today was a disappointing way to end my first home Grand Prix.

"You never want to have a DNF but for it to come here at Imola is even more bitter. That said, I will treasure the memory of this weekend.

"The support from the fans has been incredible. They kept cheering for me each and every lap, despite the struggles with our performance," he noted.

Like Russell, Antonelli didn't have any pace; he added: "Sadly, we just didn't have the pace to fight for the top five today.

"I made a good start despite being on the Hard compound, but the speed in the car wasn't there to move forward after that. I defended really hard in that first stint and managed to keep Lewis (Hamilton) behind me.

"We took advantage of the Virtual Safety Car to make our stop but after that, I started to have an issue with the throttle. I started to lose power on the straights and every lap it was getting worse before we had to retire the car.

"We have the opportunity to bounce back straight away in Monaco so we will take the learnings from here and apply them to next weekend," the Formula 1 rookie concluded.

(Russell quotes from Sky Sports F1)