Mercedes
Mercedes made a step forward in FP3, so much so they looked right in the mix for pole. But when Qualifying began, George Russell was off the pace from word go. Kimi Antonelli looked quicker, but he ran wide on his first lap in Q2 and lost the time to track limits, forcing him into using a second set of tyres. That cost the Italian, who only had one set for Q3. He came out midway through the segment by himself and managed to grab fourth, which becomes P3 when Hadjar’s penalty is applied.
But Russell could only manage eighth, and while he also gains a place thanks to Hadjar’s drop, seventh is hardly what he needed as he tries to keep the momentum from Baku going.
Kimi Antonelli, 4th, 1:35.631
“We were strong in FP3, so it was a shame that we dropped back in terms of competitiveness come qualifying. It is a unique circuit here with a very aggressive tarmac and in incredibly hot conditions; that makes it difficult to deliver the same performance consistently. We will go around the loop tonight to see what we could have done differently and to make sure we understand exactly where we went wrong.
“I put myself under quite a lot of pressure with only one new set of Soft tyres in Q3 but I did what I could. If we had a second set, I think we could have fought for the front-row, but I don’t think we could have challenged Max (Verstappen) for pole. He has looked like the quickest car all weekend and so it proved today.
“P3 is not a bad place to be starting from all things considered. The tyre degradation is likely to be very high and, in all probability, it will be a multi-stop race. That will hopefully open up opportunities for us if we have good race pace. There is still the possibility of rain too which could make things even more exciting so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
George Russell, 8th, 1:35.871
“We’ve struggled today and that is reflected by what was our toughest Saturday of the year. It is so hot here and the tarmac is very aggressive, with the low grip making lap times several seconds slower than when we last raced here in 2017. That may have impacted our performance comparatively to what we have seen at other circuits, but it is true to say that we have clearly suffered more than our closest competitors this weekend. We didn’t expect to struggle this much here in Malaysia, and we will work hard to understand why.
“Whilst we are frustrated by our performance today, tomorrow will be a very different challenge. The race is likely to be dominated by high tyre degradation and keeping the tyres in good shape across a full stint will be the key to a good Grand Prix. Whilst we have ground to make up, we know it should be possible to overtake if you have the speed so we will be giving it our all to make up ground.”
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“That was our toughest Saturday of the season, and we need to dig deep to understand exactly why that was. We have plenty to analyse from the two days of running here in Sepang to get to the heart of why we have struggled so much. There are many factors we will need to take into consideration, and we can’t rule anything out at this stage.
“Tomorrow is another day. With the levels of degradation we saw in practice, we are heading a little bit into the unknown in terms of both race pace and strategy. It will likely be a Grand Prix where we see multiple stops for each car and that could provide opportunities. Equally, we know that our race pace on Friday wasn’t the strongest, so we hope the changes we have made to the car since then have helped with that, even if they didn’t benefit us on our single laps today.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“Today was clearly a disappointing result relative to our expectations coming into the weekend. We showed encouraging pace in FP3, but couldn’t extract the same performance when we needed come qualifying. We will spend time this evening, and in the coming days, analysing the data to understand why we fell away compared to our competitors and what lessons we can take forward.
“The focus now turns to tomorrow. This circuit is placing huge demands on the tyres and degradation is expected to be very high, which means strategy, tyre management and operational execution will all be critical. Whilst we would have preferred to be starting further forward, both drivers are in positions where they can fight for solid results. With a race that looks likely to feature multiple pit stops and plenty of strategic variation, there will be opportunities to make progress if we have decent pace.”
