Mercedes optimistic: "The engine seems to be working well in the thin air"

Mercedes surprised friend and foe by taking the entire front row in qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix. As icing on the cake it was not Lewis Hamilton, but Valtteri Bottas who took the best starting spot. For Mercedes, the result was the reason for a cautious celebration, although top engineer Andrew Shovlin realises that the race is not over yet.

Shovlin is therefore full of praise for Bottas. "A phenomenal pole by Valtteri and great to get Lewis up there for another Mercedes front row," he explained to Sky Sports. "We've been battling with the car a bit all weekend and the drivers haven't found it easy to get the whole lap together."

"That's made it difficult to know whether to change our approach to stick to the plan. That picture didn't really look to have changed particularly through the first two sessions in qualifying. Happily, the final session was quite different," the Brit added.

According to Shovlin, the strong qualifying meant that the problems that Mercedes usually have at high speeds had been resolved. "It looked like we were finally getting the grip out of the soft tyres and at the same time Red Bull started to struggle a bit. It was very encouraging to see the straight-line speed today; the power unit seems to be working well in the thin air thanks to a lot of good work that has taken place in Brixworth over the last few weeks," he concludes.