Mercedes had an abrupt end to their Sprint qualifying after George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished P11 and P12 respectively, separated by a mere 0.028s as both drivers got everything out of their underwhelming package.
Speaking after the session, Hamilton was asked if there was anything different about the W15 compared to previous events.
“The car felt really good in P1 and then P2, I mean it didn’t feel terrible, it was just, we were 7 tenths off, I mean that’s just I think the pace of our car.
“I think the sprint race is going to be tough, I mean we’re in 12th, so don’t expect a huge amount from there to be honest, it’s not an easy circuit to overtake on or to follow, so just trying to step into the points somehow if we can,” he added when asked if there’s an opportunity to salvage points in the sprint race.
Mercedes has been known to really push the envelope on experimental set-ups since 2022 to try and figure out a way to get the car working.
However, the plans have changed.
“No, this weekend we’ve just been, no more experiments, just trying to make the car work, so I feel like we extracted everything from the car and that’s just our pace, we just have to accept it for the moment that we’re 7 tenths off.”
Meanwhile, Russell shared some of the same sentiments with the car. He had been quick in first practice as he placed P4, 0.189s away from Max Verstappen.
The Brit missed out on SQ3 by 0.018s in the end.
“I’m not too sure, to be honest. In practice, the soft tyre was feeling really good on our car, but pace was good, I think it was P4, and just on the medium just couldn’t get the sweet spot, and as you say, I found myself on the wrong side of it.
“It was tight out there, we shouldn’t have been in a position to be that close to the margin, to the cut-off, and we need to work overnight and make some improvements for the main quali.”
Russell seems to be confident that Mercedes will move forward in the Sprint later today as the Brackley-based squad look to salvage some points from it.
“I’ve got no doubt we’ll move forward in the Sprint race. We need to try and get on top of our qualifying woes. It’s always difficult to fight with the cars ahead when we’re starting on the back foot.
“Everybody’s brought updates to this race. McLaren brought a big upgrade, Aston had something last week, so we’re kind of in the same boat as everybody else, but today it just doesn’t work for us.”
