Mercedes had to use party mode as usual: "Margin wasn't big enough"

In the middle of the season, the FIA decided that teams should use the same set-up for their engine throughout the weekend. This puts an end to party mode, where the power of the engine is only increased during qualifying.

Mercedes is normally well ahead of the other teams, so it is questionable to what extent the team will be affected by the new rule. According to Valtteri Bottas, the mode had to be used this Saturday. "We used the engine optimally as always in qualifying," said the Finn at the press conference after the session.

Margin not big enough

"As we've seen all weekend, the difference is quite small with Red Bull Racing and a number of other teams also getting involved in the mix. We felt that we didn't have such a large margin that we could already save. As long as we can just use all the power, we might as well do that. I don't think it will make such a big difference either," concludes Bottas.

For the Finn it probably meant the difference between starting from second or third position. Max Verstappen ended the session only 0.015 seconds behind the Mercedes driver.