F1 | Mercedes, Toto Wolff reveals: “Better qualifying than we expected”

Mercedes is forced to surrender to the fury of Verstappen at the Red Bull Ring, which in the two editions of 2020 had been the absolute property of Toto Wolff's team in terms of results on the track. Valtteri Bottas tried to make up for the penalty he earned on Friday, after the pit lane accident, as much as possible, by taking second place on the grid. Unfortunately, however, the Finn will have to give up the front row to his teammate Lewis Hamilton, third. In the race the two Mercedes, as well as Verstappen, will start on yellow tyre, the compound used to qualify for Q2. It will be a close fight, as Wolff also reminds us, because the German team is currently second in both world championships, every point is now worth gold in the fight against Red Bull.

"All in all, I think our qualifying result is slightly better than we expected after free practice. Valtteri made a great recovery after a complicated Friday, a good job to limit the damage of the penalty: he will start from fifth position and has a good opportunity, given that he will have the mediums for the first stint” said the team principal at the end of qualifying.

"As for Lewis, his attempts were good and, looking at the data, it's not clear where he could have made up more time this afternoon. It was an anomalous session, with Valtteri making three attempts in Q2, and Lewis doing the same in Q3. This allowed us to get everything out of the car, controlling the pace in the out-laps to better manage and preserve the tires – continued Wolff – both our drivers will start on the mediums, and usually our race pace is better than that in qualifying. I think it will be a fast race with different options available for strategy. An exciting afternoon, but the race will be difficult, and perhaps the weather could play its part. I can't wait".