Lewis Hamilton sprung a surprise by qualifying his Mercedes on the first row of the grid. Including Helmut Marko, who suggested that the world champion owed this starting position to a sacrifice by his teammate. According to Toto Wolff this is not the case at all.
Valtteri Bottas, according to Helmut Marko, would have sacrificed his fast lap by going onto the track first in Q3 to give Lewis Hamilton a slipstream. Wolff tells Sky Sports that the decision on this order was determined far in advance, however.
Batting order is fixed for the whole season at Mercedes
Indeed, at the start of the 2017 season Bottas was allowed to choose whether he would go onto the track first or second, and since then this has alternated. So this weekend it was Hamilton's turn to choose first and he 'logically' chose to go second on the track. That is a 'total coincidence', according to Wolff.
According to Marko, Hamilton would have gained almost half a second with this, but Wolff doesn't believe in that either. "If you actually try to execute that, it never works," said the Austrian, who attributes Hamilton's time gain mainly to the choice of a smaller rear wing.