Mixed fortunes: Mercedes F1 team reviews their qualifying performance

Styria [Austria], July 1 : After the qualifying race on Friday, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team opened up about their performance in the qualifying.

It was contrasting fortunes down at Mercedes as, while Lewis Hamilton looked quite comfortable all day and qualified fifth, his teammate George Russell did not behind the wheel of the W14. The Briton was knocked out in Q2 and will start Sunday's race from 11th on the grid

Lewis Hamilton finished the race in the fifth position with a timing of 1:04.819.

Hamilton said, "It was a tough session today, but thankfully we got through it. This track has always been a challenge for our car in the past and it showed again today, so I'll take P5. It's a good, strong position to start the race from on Sunday. I'm not quite sure yet, where exactly we stand with our race pace, possibly we're third or fourth quickest. We're trying to focus on us and to get around as quickly as we can, so we will work hard overnight and try to do better in sprint qualifying tomorrow, depending on weather conditions and temperatures."

George Russell finished 11th with a timing of 1:05.428.

Russell said, "We weren't quick enough today and from the first laps in the practice session I didn't have the best feel of the car. Obviously, it's challenging going into a sprint race weekend like this, as you just don't have the time to make the necessary changes. We'll see what we can do overnight going into tomorrow and how we can improve ahead of the sprint qualifying. P11 is clearly not the best starting position for Sunday, but we've had some good results starting from further down the field this year so I'm hopeful we can fight our way back during the race."