Shovlin confirms Mercedes made qualifying pace sacrifices in Austria

F1 News

Mercedes made sacrifices for qualifying in Austria
29 June at 19:15
  • Matt Gretton
  • Editor-in-Chief

Andrew Shovlin says Mercedes sacrificed pace and performance in qualifying and hope to reap the rewards in the Austrian Grand Prix. Despite this focus on long run performance, George Russell will start from third-place behind only Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton will start from 5th.

Mercedes have comfortably outscored Ferrari in the last two Grands Prix weekend, and once again look likely to beat them in Austria. Shovlin first highlighted how Mercedes outscored their Italian rivals in the sprint race. "We had a decent Sprint earlier today. It was good to be able to pick up some additional points over Ferrari and gain some good understanding of the long run ahead of the race tomorrow. Our pace was OK, but not quite on a par with the McLarens," Shovlin said.

Mercedes confirm sacrifice

"We therefore made some changes for Qualifying that may have cost us a little bit this [Saturday] afternoon, but hopefully will put us in a stronger position tomorrow [Sunday]," Shovlin added. Both Mercedes drivers jumped up a place after Oscar Piastri had a lap time deleted, though McLaren are appealing against the decision from the stewards.

"That result is another indication that we're heading in the right direction, even if the gap to Max today was larger than it has been in previous races. We’re looking forward to tomorrow’s race and hopefully we can challenge for the podium," Shovlin concluded.