Wolff was afraid of Verstappen: "We sh*t our pants in the pits!"

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff had no longer counted on pole position for his team. According to the Austrian, Max Verstappen's Red Bull Racing was a lot faster than expected on Saturday. Mercedes almost missed out on pole position for the first time in the season after the Dutchman led the way in the opening run of Q3.

In the end it was Valtteri Bottas who can start from P1 on Sunday, but that wasn't easy. “We sh*t our pants in the pits! How we got out of that last lap was an incredible achievement," says Wolff at ORF.

“The fact that we start in first and second place, even before Red Bull Racing, which was actually faster this session, is unbelievable,” Wolff continues. Just before the end of qualifying, it seemed that Verstappen would take his third pole position in his career.

Bottas was faster than his teammate Lewis Hamilton. “Valtteri simply warms up the tyres better when it is so cold or when the asphalt is very slippery. That was shown again today," Wolff praises.