Wolff thanks racing gods after nerve-racking qualification: "That happened today"

For Mercedes, the Grand Prix weekend in Russia seemed to have gone smoothly until a red flag made them think on their feet in qualifying. Hamilton still managed to get pole position, but Mercedes could easily not have been so lucky.

"Sometimes, it's the tracks where we perform well in practice, that prove to be the most difficult in Qualifying and the race. That happened today, with a very challenging Qualifying session," said team boss Toto Wolff afterwards. "We had very strong care, but almost stumbled over a red flag. I think we had the racing gods on our side, that we were able to make it into Q3."

Worse day for Valtteri Bottas

"It's always impressive how Lewis manages to put it all together, even if adversity is being thrown at him. He did a fantastic job to secure pole position. On Valtteri's side, we need to investigate what happened, because he had a very strong Friday, but FP3 went against him," Wolff said.

The delay from Hamilton is not a fair reflection of Bottas' speed, according to Wolff. He expects an exciting race tomorrow on different tyre strategies. Especially the long run to turn 1, in which Max Verstappen will undoubtedly get involved.