Mercedes have confessed they made a mistake in overruling George Russell during their pivotal pit decision at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Russell had an excellent start to the race, overtaking pole-sitter Lando Norris to take the lead. However, the race soon derailed due to the rain and the driver insisted that he should remain on track rather than pitting.

He was overruled, though, and Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has admitted that Russell should have been listened to.

In a revealing video analysis, the team strategist said: “With hindsight, you would manage most races differently but, certainly, in this case, we would have done.

“One of the key things is once they announced that the Virtual Safety Car was ending, we had a very, very short window, only a second or two, where we could have got George to stay out on track.”