The Mercedes team is off to a strong start this weekend in Monza. Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton will start tomorrow's second sprint race of the season from the front row of the grid.
Andrew Shovlin has words of praise for Bottas in Mercedes' press release. "Well done to Valtteri, a great lap and a well-deserved pole position... even if the rule book says that comes tomorrow." In fact, the official pole position will only be awarded to the winner of the sprint race tomorrow.
"It is always a busy day when you only have one hour in free practice to get the car ready and set up for qualifying but we had a productive session in the morning and the car seemed to be working well. We looked to have good pace through the sessions and that's helped us save some tyres so we have all options open to us for the race starts tomorrow and on Sunday," Shovlin continued.
Bottas the fastest, but the last car on the grid
Mercedes decided before qualifying to replace Bottas' engine anyway, meaning he will start last during Sunday's race. "Unfortunately, we noticed an issue with Valtteri's power unit towards the end of the morning session and we didn't have endless time to investigate so we decided to take a new power unit whilst there was still time to change it. The crew did a great job making sure the car was back together for qualifying. That's going to mean Valtteri starts from the back on Sunday but it's great that we've got both cars on the front row for tomorrow."