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Mercedes: "It's going to be very difficult to win"

09:34, 13 May 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Mercedes chief race engineer Andrew Shovlin believes it will be difficult for the Silver Arrows to maintain their one-two status from qualifying in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix. The Mercedes pair line up one and two for the race however due to track conditions, staying there could be an issue.

“We saw great laps from both of our drivers today and it’s very satisfying for the whole team to secure our first front row of the year,” he said.

“We had expected conditions to cool today but hadn’t expected the track to get quite as cold as it did.

“By qualifying, the temperatures were not dissimilar to those from the final winter test and getting the most out of the rubber was not easy. We’d planned to try and get through Q2 on the soft tyre but it seemed like the entire top ten had the same idea.

"In these conditions, it was really hard to work out which was the faster tyre. We had the option of going on SuperSoft or Soft tyres for the final run but decided to stick with the Super as we had a good balance in the first session and it seemed a little easier to extract the grip on that compound.

“We’re expecting some overnight rain, which will cause the track to reset, together with cooler conditions than those we experienced on Friday.

"It’s going to be a very difficult race to win tomorrow, given the range of strategies that could come into play, but we have had a good car in all the races this year and will be doing everything we can to turn the front row into a double podium.”