Mercedes
Russell had to get his elbows out at the start, aggressively moving across the track to ensure Norris did not slip past. From there, he could not keep up with Piastri, but did well to stay ahead of Norris and hold onto second place. Antonelli also scored, as the teenager managed to sneak past Alonso when the Spaniard ran wide. But he was handed a five-second time penalty for track limit infringements and was fortunate to hold onto sixth.
Come Qualifying, both cars made it to Q3. Russell went for the double warm-up tactic, but just did not have the pace to fight for higher than fourth, as he was ably backed up by his team mate in fifth.
George Russell, Sprint: 2nd, Qualifying: 4th, 1:19.662
“We can be pleased to be starting P4 tomorrow; it’s a good place to be on the grid and gives us a solid opportunity to score strong points in our battle for P2 in the Constructors’ Championship. Obviously, being so close to P3 with such a small margin of just one hundredth between us and Verstappen is annoying, but the field is so close right now. Both McLarens were fast throughout and did an impressive job so I think P3 was the maximum we could have hoped for. Overall, we did a good job as a team with Kimi in P5, and we will be looking to secure P2 in the standings tomorrow.
“Tomorrow’s race will be interesting with the tyre stint limit making it a mandatory two-stop race. The car balance has felt good this weekend so I’m hopeful that we can be in the race for the podium. We are looking forward and let’s see what the points situation is once the chequered flag falls.”
Kimi Antonelli, Sprint: 6th, Qualifying: 5th, 1:19.846
“I am not fully satisfied with P5 today as I know we had a little bit more pace to show. That said, it is still a solid place to be starting tomorrow’s race from and gives us a good chance of banking a decent number of points.
“My final lap in qualifying wasn’t perfect. I had a strong second sector but struggled more than the rest of the weekend to hook up the first sector. I lost the rear a little bit at turn one and that caused me to lose some momentum. That always makes it a little more difficult to recover the lost time through the rest of the lap. That was disappointing, however, we improved our performance considerably compared to yesterday’s sessions and I am sure we will be able to maximise the potential of the car tomorrow. Strategically, it should be a straightforward two-stop. The start, just like it did in today’s Sprint, is likely going to play a huge role in the outcome of the race, so that is where I need to gain as many positions as possible.”
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“That was a solid, if not spectacular, Saturday in Qatar. Coming into the weekend, our focus has been on continuing to score good points as we try to secure P2 in the Constructors’ Championship ahead of the final race of the season. P2 with George in the Sprint plus Kimi bringing home a further three points has helped us extend our advantage slightly. A decent qualifying session, with the cars in P4 and P5, gives us a good opportunity to seal our place in the standings on Sunday.
“We aren’t getting ahead of ourselves though. The field is incredibly competitive with just one tenth of a second the difference between multiple places in qualifying today. We also saw how difficult it was to overtake in the Sprint so making sure we’re in a strong position after lap one tomorrow will be key. McLaren are clearly the reference this weekend, but we are within striking distance. It will be interesting to see how the strategy plays out with the mandatory stint lengths too. We will race hard, be looking to challenge for the podium, and hopefully do the job we need to in order to close out P2.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“That was another solid day in Qatar. In the Sprint, George didn’t get off the line brilliantly but did well to hold position. Kimi had a decent start but couldn’t quite turn that into a gain of positions. Overtaking is challenging here so we knew that we would likely be looking to bank our positions from there. George did a good job to do that and pick up a Sprint podium whilst Kimi did well to pressure Alonso into a mistake. Unfortunately, he picked up a five0second penalty for track limits which without that would have given him P5; P6 was still useful points though.
“We didn’t change the car much going into qualifying; it’s always a bit of a balance between chasing more performance with setup changes and ending up with a car that the drivers find less compliant. This evening’s session ran smoothly but both drivers felt that they could have found a bit of time and been starting higher up the grid tomorrow; there were no glaring errors though and realistically McLaren were out of reach today. We scored useful points in the Sprint and have a good chance of adding to that tomorrow. If we can do so, we can be confident of sewing up P2 in the Constructors’ ahead of Abu Dhabi.”
