Mercedes has found a solution: 'That's our main concern now'

So far Lewis Hamilton or Valtteri Bottas had taken pole position at every event this season, but the one hundred percent pole position record has now been broken by Lance Stroll. If it hadn't been for the Canadian, the two drivers wouldn't have come close either, as Hamilton didn't go beyond P6 and Bottas even finished in P9.

An unusually poor performance for Mercedes, which Andrew Shovlin said was due to tyre problems. "We were struggling to get the tyres into the right window today, it's a problem that we had been battling with since we arrived here. We've got some freedom to make a few changes to the car tomorrow and we need to have a good look at things ahead of the race because tyre warm-up is going to be critical," explained the Mercedes engineer in the team's review of the day.

Clear priority at Mercedes

Despite the bad results on Saturday, Shovlin does see opportunities for tomorrow's race. "Once we get temperature in the tyres, we seem to be in decent shape and the car seems to be working well, so getting the rubber to work is our main concern."

"It's an interesting weekend with many opportunities to grow our understanding of the car and the tyres. The unusual grid should make for an exciting race and we're looking forward to it," concluded the Mercedes man.