Mercedes has hopes for the race: 'Car looked better in the long runs'

The German team is not used to dropping out so early in qualifying after a successful run of eight Constructors' Championships. Hamilton did not manage to record a time good enough for Q2. Mercedes will work hard on the set-up of his car so that he can perform better during the race.

Engineer Andrew Shovlin said in the team's official press release that Mercedes have hope for the race. "We know we aren't quick enough at the moment and Lewis exiting in Q1 is just a symptom of that. We struggled here on single lap pace. However, the car did look better in race spec yesterday than on single runs, so we're hopeful we'll have a better package tomorrow. We know the races here don't normally run to plan so there's lots of opportunity to move forward and we'll no doubt gain some useful knowledge along the way. George drove strong sessions and didn't leave much in the car today."

Mercedes working on solution

Unlike other teams, the W13 still suffers from a lot of porpoising, with the car bouncing heavily on the straights. Mercedes is working hard on a solution, but it will take some time.

"The porpoising is priority number one because it's preventing us from running the car where we want it. We've got some avenues which are giving us good direction but it's taking us time to get those as parts on the car. We're leaving no stone unturned and every day we run, we're learning," added Shovlin.