F1 News
Mercedes cautious after Russell's pole position: 'We have to react well'
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes' trackside engineering director was satisfied following qualifying in Las Vegas. Mercedes topped the time sheets in all three practice sessions, and George Russell could convert that into a pole position for Saturday. The Briton reacted to his team's result, Mercedes report.
Does the W15 also have enough race pace?
"We've had a fast car all weekend and there was a real possibility of us locking out the front-row. It was a tricky session and George did a great job to take pole position. Lewis had shown fantastic speed throughout and was unlucky to have issues on both his laps in Q3. Unfortunately, that left him P10 for tomorrow," Shovlin rated his team's performance on Friday night in the 'Sin City'.
Like many others, Shovlin does not want to get carried away just yet, as he pointed to graining on long runs. "The car has been working really well on a single lap; that has been the case from the first laps of FP1 all the way through to the final lap of Q3. However, it's a lot harder to read where we will be on long run pace."
"The graining caused by the cool temperature is dominating the degradation and because some pushed early in their runs in FP2, whilst others managed their tyres, it's hard to know where everything will fall out tomorrow," he added.
Shovlin therefore underlined his team have to be on top of their game come the Grand Prix, where Carlos Sainz will start alongside Russell. "We will have to be live to how the race is going and react well if we want to fight for victory," the 51-year-old Briton concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Estéban den Toom
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