Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and the team’s former World Champion driver Lewis Hamilton were both bleak with how the Dutch Grand Prix turned out for them, saying the car was much faster than the results suggested.

Hamilton finished in a disappointing sixth place while George Russell dropped out shortly before the end and failed to finish.

Speaking after the race Hamilton confirmed that he thought his car had the ability to challenge for the podium adding that tactics on the day had resulted in the lowly finishes: “I think today I had the pace, in those conditions, if we made the right call, I had the pace to be challenging the top two,” he said.

“I feel really good, I kind of didn’t know how today was going to go naturally, I sat here last night just racking my brain about where we go wrong and how we end up in this position, but then I was just working out how I can progress this morning.

“I was the only one of the medium tyres, I wanted to be offset to the people around me, not everyone on the grid and when that rain then came out it really as a team, we made the wrong decision.

“It was ultimately the teams call and we all paid the price for that, but we came out last and then after that I was just chasing, kept my head down.

“I think it was a really good example of when you fall and stumble to get back up and keep trying, and every time I had to pit, I came out behind and just kept on chasing and chasing.”

Wolff was a little less circumspect in his assessment of what happened. “I think we stayed out catastrophically too long. It is annoying as the car had the pace. From then on, we were just recovering as we could.

“I’d rather have good pace and a mediocre result, even if it hurts. It is bittersweet because the result is really bad – it could have been better but that doesn’t count in sport.

“We will review thoroughly. It is never one person and one department. It was subpar from all of us and that includes me.

“It stings when it sticks.”