Motor racing-Bottas's wheel is finally freed

LONDON (Reuters) - Mercedes have finally stopped the clock on Valtteri Bottas's Monaco Grand Prix tyre change after removing a stuck wheel from his car two days after it forced his retirement.

The Formula One champions posted a video on Thursday of a crouching mechanic freeing up the front right wheel with special equipment at the factory on Tuesday morning.

"The job's done. Onwards and upwards from here," Mercedes added on Twitter. "All eyes on Baku to come back smarter and stronger."

It normally takes about a second and a half to remove a nut, change a wheel and put a new nut on.

"The margin for error is very small and if just the slightest problem happens, it slows the stop down or potentially, in an absolute disastrous case, this happens," head of strategy James Vowles said in a debrief.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)