Mercedes gave the impression that they would line up with at least one car in the top three in the sprint race in Austria, but the best they could do in qualifying on Friday (8) was fifth place for George Russell. This is because both the #63 and Lewis Hamilton crashed in Q3 when coming in fast laps, but Toto Wolff preferred to look at the glass and see it as half full, as the pace of the W13 at the Red Bull Ring ended up surprising the German team.

Russell set a best lap of 1min05s431, 0s4 off Max Verstappen's pole position. Hamilton's time was only 1min13s151, a very high time recorded early in the final part of the session, when the Briton made a mistake. But what impressed Wolff was that, from the start, the pair were consistent compared to their main rivals.

George Russell fez o quinto melhor tempo (Foto: Mercedes) — George Russell set the fifth best time (Photo: Mercedes)

"We are surprised [with the pace]. Spielberg has always been a difficult track for us, even on our best days, so we didn't expect to progress in terms of performance," Wolff admitted. "However, slowly, everything is falling into place," he assessed.

"These are small steps and an incredible job by the engineers. I'm happy to see that. For a long time, we were out of contention, and now we might have George starting fourth [if Sergio Pérez is punished for exceeding track limits], and also Lewis. We'll see how it goes. We have a sprint race and another one on Sunday. If they are good days, it will be possible to move forward," added the Austrian.

Finally, the base leader at Brackley absolved his team of any blame for the accidents, saying that they "should never feel guilty for a situation like this.

"We gave them a substandard car for ten races in a row, and only now are we coming to terms with it and riding in the front group. Losing control of the car can happen. I'd rather have a fast car and qualify like this than not have the pace to be in the top four," Wolff concluded.