Mercedes' qualifying gamble could cost them in the race

Mercedes' decision to run the ultrasoft tyres in Q2 during qualifying might come back to haunt the Silver Arrows. The team had to bail out of their plan after not setting a time fast enough to get through to Q3 and had to go back out on hypersoft tyres to get through.

Although Lewis Hamilton had posed the question as to whether their rivals would adapt to the tyres in the race having not run them this weekend thus far, Mercedes' gamble has left them as the only team without a set of fresh ultrasoft tyres.

It means that it could lead to both Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas being required to conserve tyre life more aggressively than those around them. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff acknowledged that it could be a tough afternoon for them.

“We were optimistic, keen to try to find out whether we could qualify on the (ultrasoft) because starting the race on the hyper will be tough,” said Wolff.

“We’ve seen a lot of graining on the front left and we’ve seen some degradation on the rear. Probably the one who is in the lead is going to manage the pace very carefully in the race tomorrow and still run out of tyre after a few laps.

“Insofar, it could be quite a tricky situation and you would want to avoid the hyper.”