Lewis Hamilton suffered another disastrous qualifying session as he failed to make it to Q3 at Imola.
Mercedes struggled for pace once again, and George Russell also suffered as they failed to set a time fast enough to make it into the top 10. They were prevented from trying to set a faster time by a wave of rain which rolled in while the session was paused following a crash.
It is the first time that both Mercedes cars have failed to make it into Q3 since 2012, when it happened at the Japanese Grand Prix. Russell will start Saturday's sprint race in 11th, while Hamilton will be two places behind in 13th.
Mercedes were bracing for a difficult weekend, but will be especially disappointed to not be involved in the last part of the session. But speaking to Sky Sports F1 afterwards Russell was keen to point out that this weekend's sprint race offers an opportunity to improve their situation.
"We were always struggling a little bit to get temperature into the tyre," he said. "And we always seem to be taking a bigger jump from the second lap. We saw it in Australia as well where we were compared to the Alpines and the McLarens – they were a first-lap qualifier and we had to do it on the third lap.
"It was a bit of a shame with how the red flags panned out today, but if there is a weekend to not be where we want to be, a sprint weekend is the one to do it. So not ideal, but a chance to recover some positions tomorrow."
Hamilton looked disconsolate as he later came out to face the cameras and reflect on a difficult result to swallow. "Naturally it's disappointing," he said. "We came here with optimism and everyone is working really hard at the factory, so when things don't come together it's disappointing.
"I think we underperformed as a team today. There are things that we should have done but we didn't do. We will work as hard as we can to move up in the spring race – it will be a difficult race but hopefully tomorrow is better weather-wise and, who knows, maybe we can move our way forwards."
