Mercedes boss expects Red Bull to give them a hard time in Japan
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that his team is still wary of the threat from Red Bull in the Japanese GP, despite the World Champions safely securing the front row.
While Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo qualified fifth and sixth, Sebastian Vettel’s Malaysian GP penalty has given both men a boost, with only Kimi Raikkonen now splitting them from the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton up ahead.
Wolff is adamant that it won’t be a straightforward run for his drivers in what is now likely to be a dry race.
“I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “Because Sebastian goes back three places, and the long runs of Red Bull were pretty impressive. You need to win the start, you need to come around the Esses properly [on the first lap], and you need to finish the race. So there are plenty of variable still.
“The opportunities for Lewis to outscore Nico are getting difficult, but still you need to finish the race. Lewis was very unlucky with reliability issues, and it was a little bit easier for Nico this year. But it’s five races to go and you need to finish them first.”
Rosberg has been quicker than Hamilton all weekend, with the exception of the first runs in Q3, when the German’s engineers tried something that didn’t work out. When they took a step back he bit Hamilton on the final runs by the tiniest of margins.
“It was very close, and on the second last run wasn’t perfect for Nico, how they put the car. Then they went back, and it was really good. They changed a bit, they looked at a couple of things, I don’t know the details, and then they went back to what they knew.
“We this interesting pattern. Last weekend it was Lewis’s dominance, and he was almost unbeatable, and before in Singapore it was Nico again. I have no explanation, but it’s definitely positive for the team, because they keep pushing each other to new levels.”
