Mercedes
Many had tipped Mercedes to carry out nicely on the Crimson Bull Ring, and their tempo regarded respectable in FP1. Come Dash Qualifying, Russell put his W15 in P4 and was left feeling hopeful of battling for a podium in Saturday’s Dash. Hamilton, in the meantime, will line up in P6 however branded his complete session as “fairly disastrous”.
Lewis Hamilton, sixth, 1:05.270
“I had a troublesome Dash Qualifying at present. Observe went nicely and the automotive felt good. I don’t assume we had the tempo to struggle for pole place for the Dash however we seemingly had extra velocity than we confirmed. I wasn’t proud of any of my laps and Dash Qualifying was fairly a messy session general.
“The Dash race tomorrow will probably be difficult. It’s not straightforward to overhaul round right here and beginning P6 makes it troublesome for us. If it’s not an eventful race, then I don’t assume we will transfer ahead too many locations. However, we are going to nonetheless be giving it our all. Our important focus although is in fact on Qualifying later within the afternoon and Sunday’s race.”
George Russell, 4th, 1:05.054
“The Smooth tyre felt excellent, and my lap felt robust. I used to be due to this fact slightly shocked on the hole to P1, however I seemingly pushed too exhausting on the out lap. That probably took slightly of the height grip away from the tyre. From within the automotive, it felt like the perfect lap of the session, so that’s in all probability the reason for why we dropped slightly bit additional again.
“P4 continues to be a good place to be beginning for the Dash tomorrow. We’re within the struggle for the rostrum. Our focus is in fact on Qualifying and the Grand Prix, however that is simply one other validation that we’re heading in the right direction and within the combine close to the entrance.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“We had a stable FP1. Each automobiles managed quantity of future work, and, on the Arduous tyre, we have been wanting just like Barcelona by way of competitiveness. Dash Qualifying was fairly easy though in SQ3 we have been first out on monitor. It was necessary to not threat lacking the flag however that does make it troublesome to get the advantage of the monitor evolution. We hoped for a bit higher than P4 and P6 however our efficiency on the Smooth compound wasn’t robust sufficient to problem for higher. Lewis picked up some ground harm and wasn’t completely satisfied together with his laps. George felt that he wanted to a bit extra high-speed grip to go quicker, so we’re find out how to make a number of enhancements in a single day.
“Our goal is to attain respectable factors within the Dash tomorrow morning, however it’s additionally helpful as future preparation forward of Sunday’s race. We have additionally obtained the chance to tweak the automotive for important Qualifying after the Dash. We all know the place we have to enhance so hopefully, we are able to make a little bit of floor up and begin slightly nearer to the entrance for the race on Sunday.”
