Toto Wolff has jokingly pointed out Mercedes could still win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix if the “top four drivers crash out”.
Mercedes will line up for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in fifth and seventh places, with George Russell again having the measure of Lewis Hamilton over a single lap in Saturday qualifying.
Russell’s best time in Q3 was 1.3 seconds away from the pole position set by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, and two tenths clear of Hamilton’s best – the pair split by AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly.
With such a huge gulf between the ‘best of the rest’ and the leading Ferraris and Red Bulls, Wolff joked it would take pretty unusual circumstances for a Mercedes victory in Baku on Sunday.
“I think the most we expected today was to be third quickest on the road, but [Pierre] Gasly put in a really strong lap to get between us,” Wolff said after the session as he spoke to Sky F1’s Karun Chandhok as the broadcaster analysed Mercedes’ performance.
“For tomorrow, if you look at it through rose-tinted glasses you can see hopefully the four of them ahead come together in Turn 1 and then we can win the race!” he joked.
“There’s no doubt the gap to the front is big. It’s a long lap time here and we are lacking pretty much everywhere. I wish I didn’t need to look at these kinds of performance overlays in future with the guys up front (referring to comparison TV footage).
“But I think on pure pace, it’s realistic to finish fifth and sixth. Strategy can play a big role, you can recover and make up positions if you are on the right strategy. We can gamble given the position we are in because when you are the hunter it’s a different situation, so we’ll be looking at all options for the race.”
Saturday’s qualifying action ends with P5 for @GeorgeRussell63 and P7 for @LewisHamilton. Plenty of opportunities for tomorrow’s race. Let’s go, team! 👊 #AzerbaijanGP #WorldsFastestFamily #MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/aJGzAmso0F
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