In the opening ❀five rounds, Russell led Hamilton 4-1 in the qualifying head-to-head, while it was 2-2 on race day.

Since Monaco, Hamilton has only been out-qualified by Russell on one occasion, while the Austrian Grand Prix was the only time he finiꦬshed behind (due to a penalty for track lℱimits).

It’s been a remarkable shift in momentum at Mercedes, particularly ﷺas Russell♈ managed to out-score Hamilton points-wise in the championship.

Speaking after Friday practice at the , Wolff explained why he doesn’t want to assess Ru🎀ssell’s struggles until after Sin💃gapore.

“I think we must wait to [see] how this pans out and we have more data points,” he told Sky. “This race and Mo🍌nღza, maybe Singapore, three totally different tracks and see whether there was a shift because of the update we introduced.”

Russell 🙈struggled again for one-lap pace relative to Hamilton in FP2, nearly four-tenths between the two Brits.

“I think on the first run this afternoon with the harder compound, the medium they used, he [Russell] was very competitive and then putting on th🧜e soft it wasn’t any more,” Wolff added. “I wouldn’t make too ജmuch of this today. I think tomorrow we will see.”

Wolff also reveꦇaled Mercedes are putting greater “emphasis on the race” rather than their q♐ualifying performance.

“We made a big improvement from Friday to Saturday last year which we’re not 100 per cent sure we understand yꦍet but the car was competitive,” he explained.

“I think🌞 putting an emphasis on the race, like we did now,🍸 makes more sense than just chasing the pole position.”