Mercedes
Many had tipped Mercedes to perform well at the Red Bull Ring, and their pace looked decent in FP1. Come Sprint Qualifying, Russell put his W15 in P4 and was left feeling hopeful of battling for a podium in Saturday’s Sprint. Hamilton, meanwhile, will line up in P6 but branded his whole session as “pretty disastrous”.
READ MORE: Hamilton brands Sprint Qualifying as ‘pretty disastrous’ following SQ3 mistake in Austria
Lewis Hamilton, 6th, 1:05.270
“I had a difficult Sprint Qualifying today. Practice went well and the car felt good. I don’t think we had the pace to fight for pole position for the Sprint but we likely had more speed than we showed. I wasn’t happy with any of my laps and Sprint Qualifying was quite a messy session overall.
“The Sprint race tomorrow will be challenging. It’s not easy to overtake around here and starting P6 makes it difficult for us. If it’s not an eventful race, then I don’t think we will be able to move forward too many places. Nevertheless, we will still be giving it our all. Our main focus though is of course on Qualifying later in the afternoon and Sunday’s race.”
George Russell, 4th, 1:05.054
“The Soft tyre felt very good, and my lap felt strong. I was therefore a little surprised at the gap to P1, but I likely pushed too hard on the out lap. That potentially took a little of the peak grip away from the tyre. From in the car, it felt like the best lap of the session, so that is probably the explanation for why we dropped a little bit further back.
“P4 is still a decent place to be starting for the Sprint tomorrow. We are in the fight for the podium. Our focus is of course on Qualifying and the Grand Prix, but this is just another validation that we are on the right track and in the mix near the front.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“We had a solid FP1. Both cars managed a good amount of long run work, and, on the Hard tyre, we were looking similar to Barcelona in terms of competitiveness. Sprint Qualifying was quite straightforward although in SQ3 we were first out on track. It was important not to risk missing the flag but that does make it difficult to get the benefit of the track evolution. We hoped for a bit better than P4 and P6 but our performance on the Soft compound wasn’t strong enough to challenge for better. Lewis picked up some floor damage and wasn’t happy with his laps. George felt that he needed to a bit more high-speed grip to go faster, so we are looking at how to make a few improvements overnight.
“Our aim is to score decent points in the Sprint tomorrow morning, but it’s also useful as long run preparation ahead of Sunday’s race. We’ve also got the opportunity to tweak the car for main Qualifying after the Sprint. We know where we need to improve so hopefully, we can make a bit of ground up and start a little closer to the front for the race on Sunday.”