Despite securing the constructors' title for Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell feel they made needless mistakes.

Taking the lead at the start of the race, 2026 world champion Kimi Antonelli subsequently reported a handling issue with his car that at one stage caused him to spin off.

While he went on to finish fifth, behind his teammate, the Italian youngster was left disappointed

"I'm very disappointed for the race," he admitted. "I'm very angry to be fair, but I'm going to put all this aside for now because the team clinched the title.

"We clinched the title for the team, and they all deserve it and I'm very proud to be part of this group and this team who has done and still does so much for me and I'm very happy for them. But talking about the race specifically, yeah, very disappointing."

Though Norris went for the undercut, Antonelli still appeared to have things under control, but shortly after making his own stop, which saw him retain the lead, he spun in Turn 1.

"We were on for the win up to that point," he insisted. "Once I was able to get some temperature I was getting to the rhythm. But the spin came which still is something I need to look at because I don't know why I lost the rear so quickly.

"Like no warning, nothing. But already to be fair when I put on the soft, I felt something weird with the car. So, we need to check what happened, but on the other hand yeah, shame because we lost the race there."

The youngster subsequently told Sky Sports that along with four flat-spotted tyres as a result of the spin, the car was handling strangely in left-hand corners.

"We need to check something with the geometry of the car, of the rear, because I had this issue only in left corners," he said. "Especially at the high speed was when I was feeling it the most," he added.

"The rear felt very unstable, even in coming into the finish line in the left kink, the rear was very loose, which was weird. We need to check something in the car to see if anything happened. But it was a very odd feeling. And then when I spun, the tyres were gone, all four wheels flat spotted. Only when then I put on the second set, we got back to pace. It was a shame."

Elsewhere, teammate Russell, who was running third when Norris kick-started the pit stops, spun in the pitlane and dropped to seventh, before Hulkenberg passed him and demoted him to eighth.

"Obviously, it was a bit of an up-and-down race," said the Briton. "I have no idea what happened on that pit exit," he admitted. "I probably just took too much risk, because I was seeing an opportunity to go for the win at that point, but it happened.

"Ironically, because that happened, I then didn't pit for another set of slick tyres, and it kind of put me back in the same position as I was before the incident. The most important thing is we got the championship sealed.

"It's been a very positive weekend in terms of my performance," he continued, having admitted, following Antonelli's title win in Mexico that he needed to reset. "I'm probably more happy coming away from the weekend, because the performance was good.

"At this stage, I care more about the performance than I care about the result, because that's what's been my weak point. "The performance yesterday was great, the performance on the soft tyre was really great today, but obviously I did make that mistake. It probably would have been a very different picture if we'd have started P2, but yeah..."

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