Zak Brown theory falls flat as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell misery compounded

predicted that would be the fastest team in the field ahead of the sprint race at the on Saturday, but the Silver Arrows' duo stumbled across the line in P5 and P6, way behind the leading quartet.

On Friday, Toto Wolff's outfit showed plenty of promise with George Russell narrowly missing out on the P1 award in the sprint shootout and unfortunately-timed yellow flags hindering Lewis Hamilton on his SQ3 lap.

With that in mind, McLaren Racing CEO Brown tipped the Silver Arrows as the team to beat when the cars lined up on the grid for the sprint on Saturday. "It was a challenging Friday," he told Sky Sports F1.

"Oscar lost his time and Lando didn't optimise his time. I think Mercedes are the fastest, so they might be the team to beat this weekend. Anyone who thinks the championship is over or we have the dominant car, I think there are four cars that can win this weekend."

Unfortunately for Russell and Hamilton, Brown's theory didn't translate into on-track performance. The former showed some strong initial pace after losing out to on the opening lap but overcooked his rear tyres, dropping way off the pace and conceding two positions to the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Hamilton, meanwhile, struggled with the front tyres - a totally different issue to his team-mate - and never had the performance to challenge the cars ahead after jumping Haas' Nico Hulkenberg at the race start.

"We've had that problem many a time," a confused Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 after the sprint. "The car was feeling good yesterday and we were both on for the front and second rows, with George was so close to pole.

"So definitely a confusing result in terms of he had one problem, I had another problem. I had zero pace. [Russell] was at least able to hold on to them for a while so we will look into it. There are changes we can make [for qualifying] but it's a lot hotter than it was yesterday, so that's obviously part of the reason."

Fortunately for Mercedes, there are plenty of on-track opportunities for them to right their wrongs over the coming weeks. With races coming up in Mexico and Brazil in the coming two weeks, the tide could sway towards the Silver Arrows before the end of October.