Mercedes, and thus team principal Toto Wolff, couldn't suppress his delight when Lewis Hamilton took first place in qualifying for the sprint race. His comments were met with a response from Red Bull Racing advisor Helmut Marko, and logically Wolff's reaction followed.

"The empire strikes back", Wolff said proudly after qualifying on Friday. When Max Verstappen ran off with the pole position for Sunday's race a day later, Marko couldn't help but take a stab at it. "Greetings to the empire," he said jokingly.

Marko gets no greetings back from Wolff

Of course, no response from the Mercedes team boss is possible now either, and so Sky Deutschland asks Wolff if he sends his regards back. "No," responds the Austrian. "We're going to race tomorrow, it's clear he's happy."

For the race, by the way, he sees opportunities, but he can't hide his irritation at missing out on the pole positon. "The pace is there, we have two cars as ammunition. I don't think it's so bad to start second. I'm not trying to make it look rosier than it is, just to think positively. But at the moment it's just irritating," Wolff said.