{"id":45552,"date":"2026-09-05T17:27:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/45552\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T17:27:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:27:40","slug":"f1-italy-toto-wolff-blames-max-verstappen-for-mercedes-losing-pole-position-we-got-done-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/45552\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 Italy: Toto Wolff blames Max Verstappen for Mercedes losing pole position: ‘We got done over’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toto Wolff has pinned the blame on Max Verstappen<\/a> for the reason his Mercedes<\/a> star George Russell<\/a> failed to take pole position at the Italian Grand Prix. <\/p>\n

\nWith Kimi Antonelli given a grid penalty and tasked with helping his Mercedes team-mate in the session, Russell was favourite to go fastest at Monza with the help of a slipstream from the Italian. <\/p>\n

\nHowever, Pierre Gasly stunned everyone by taking his first ever pole<\/a>, and his Alpine team’s first since the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix with Fernando Alonso when the team were known as Renault. <\/p>\n

Article continues under video<\/p>\n

\nMercedes’ plan to run Antonelli in front of Russell took a hit in the final runs of Q3 when they got caught up behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Wolff believes this situation ruined Russell’s chance of snatching P1. <\/p>\n

\nF1 HEADLINES: Antonelli penalty confirmed as F1 star ‘almost certain’ to miss Spanish GP<\/a> <\/p>\n

Wolff: It’s Verstappen’s fault!<\/p>\n

\nWolff told Sky Sports: At the end, we got done over by Max in the final round when preparing. <\/p>\n

\n“You know, when launching the lap, it was just much too close, and that compromised the lap time eventually, and that lost pole position.” <\/p>\n

\nWhile Russell still took P2 and is a firm favourite still to win the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, Wolff refuses to rule out the possibility of an upset from the Alpine team. <\/p>\n

\nWolff added: “You always need to take everybody seriously. They have a huge amount of straight-line speed. They’ve taken away a lot of drag, and on a single lap, that proved to be what is necessary. <\/p>\n

\n“The race is a completely different ball game, so we shall see.” <\/p>\n

Wolff on Antonelli podium chances<\/p>\n

\nAntonelli, who without a slipstream assist qualified P7, will start near the back of the grid following his grid penalties for an engine change planned long before the weekend began. <\/p>\n

\nWolff though has ruled out the prospect of the Italian superstar climbing the grid to take a podium at his home race. <\/p>\n

\n“I think it’s too much to ask,” Wolf reflected. “You can see it becomes so difficult once you once you get past a certain group of peg markers. <\/p>\n

\n“The performances are so close that it’s unless you play aa very different strategy and you put a bit of a gamble in, I don’t think it’s possible.” <\/p>\n

\nREAD MORE: McLaren chief blasts ‘insulting’ allegations from rival team boss’<\/a> <\/p>\n

\nREAD MORE: How Lewis Hamilton changed Ferrari – ‘They weren’t ready for it’<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toto Wolff has pinned the blame on Max Verstappen for the reason his Mercedes star George Russell failed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29020,4645,5,29019,6174,36],"class_list":["post-45552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-dan-ripley","tag-f1","tag-italy","tag-latest-f1-news","tag-max-verstappen","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}