Toto Wolff’s view on FIA decision to reinstate Lando Norris’ pole lap
Toto Wolff has his say on the FIA's decision to reinstate Lando Norris' sprint race pꦍole lap in China.
Toto Wolff has backed the FIA’s decision to reinstate 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lando Norris' lap that secured him pole position for the sprint race at the F1 Chinese Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver went fastest but saw his lap time168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: deleted and then reinstated in the final minutes of the session, handing him pole with an effort that was 1.261 seconds quicker than Mercedes’ 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton.
Despite running wide at the final corner on the push lap prior to the one that he claimed pole with, race 💙control determined Norris had gained no advantage after initially deleting the time.
Analysis from Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok revealed that Norris had in fact lost three te♓nths at the start of the lap that earned him pole for Saturday’s sprint race.
And Mercedes boss Wo🌟lff said he had no is🌼sue with the call.
"I haven't seenꦯ the detail, I've just seen 'fo🅰ur tyres off track' but honestly that was even slower, so he could have probably gone faster so I’m ok with that,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1.
Hamilton claimed Mercedes’ best qualifying result of the season with second place, while teammate 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell was only 11th after being kn🤡ocked out in SQ2 when rain started to fal🅘l.
"Obviously, the driving ♈is most important in the wet. It shows that it’s about t🐎yre preparation,” Wolff said of Hamilton’s lap.
“We did the right thing on the final run. The tyres were in a sweet spot comඣbined with a great drꦜive, which made the time.”
After complaining that his intermediate tyres were not working, Hamilton abandoned his first lap of SQ3 to retu🃏rn to the pits, where Merಌcedes fitted him with a fresh set.
“That was on purpose,” Wo🏅lff explained. “We changed the specs of the tyres and played around with the pressure.
“But the point is that - and you saw George - both cars were ♛not competitive in Q2 because the tyres never gripped.
“Our car and generat﷽ing grip is not an easy task. We failed in Q1 and Q2 but got it right in Q3.”
Asked if Mercedes can beat McLaren in the sprint raꦐce, Wolff said: “We shou🦄ld have the pace in the dry.
“I don’t think we have the pace against the Red Bulls, but we are ag💖ainst the💖 McLarens.
“Having said that, we don🔯’t know. We have no data from FP1. It could be that [McLaren] are much quicker too, or the other way around.”
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