Reds at the top
The extraordinary qualifying achieved by the two Ferraris in Baku, with Charles Leclerc in pole position and Carlos Sainz in third place, did not surprise the Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. Analysing the qualifying sessions just concluded, the Austrian manager had words of praise for the performance of the reds: “Ferrari looked strong all weekend, so we knew it was unlikely we would be fighting for pole position.“, Wolff acknowledged.
Mercedes postponed
Focusing instead on the performance of its drivers, with George Russell setting the fifth fastest time (but under investigation for a possible infringement under the yellow flag) and Lewis Hamilton seventh in the standings, there’s not much to smile about in the Anglo-German box. “Qualifying proved frustrating today – Wolff admitted – We worked hard to make improvements overnight and thought we could fight for the second row. After the first few laps in Q3 it looked possible. Unfortunately, on our second attempt we had a less than perfect out-lap and missed out on P3 by just half a tenth of a second“.
“George continued to improve throughout the session and finished in P5 – commented the Brackley team principal again – While Lewis had issues with tyre temperatures and finished in P7. We still have some work to do tomorrow, but it’s a long race and our goal is to move up. We don’t have a clear idea of where we are compared to our competitors on long runs, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.“.
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