Mercedes breathes a sigh of relief: "That was close to the perfect result"

For Mercedes, qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix could not have turned out much better. With Lewis Hamilton on P1 and Valtteri Bottas on P2 they managed to limit the damage for the seven times world champion as much as possible and there is still a Mercedes driver on pole position. Topman Andrew Shovlin is relieved after Saturday.

"A great job by the team and drivers on a front row qualifying and well done to Lewis on getting P1 today. That was close to the perfect result for us; not quite perfect as we'd have preferred Lewis to be on the Hard tyre for the start tomorrow but that felt like we'd have been taking too much of a risk getting through to the final session given the tricky conditions," Shovlin explains in Mercedes' debrief.

Mercedes watch out for Red Bull

"Lewis drops back with his engine penalty but it's great that Valtteri inherits pole; he's been on strong form recently and has everything to play for with nothing to lose tomorrow. It's going to be interesting to see how the car and tyres perform tomorrow. Clearly everyone is wary of the Soft tyre and most have kept their options open for the race as far as tyre choice is concerned," he added. Hamilton, like almost everyone else in the top ten, will start on the yellow mediums tomorrow. Only Yuki Tsunoda will start on the softest tyre.

"It's going to quite a challenge for Lewis to fight through without a tyre advantage. There are some strong cars in that midfield pack and Sergio won't be doing him any favours but we've seen brilliant recovery drives from Lewis in Imola, Silverstone and Budapest so hopefully he can make it happen once again," Shovlin concludes.