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 pole lap in China🎐.
Toto Wolff has backed the FIA’s decision to reinstate 168澳洲5最新开奖结果: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5最新开奖结果: 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5最新开奖结果: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 h𒈔ad gained no advantage after initially deleting the time.
Analysis from Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandho🍒k revealed that Norris had in fact lost three tenths at the start of the lap that earned him pole for Saturday’s sprint race.
And Mercedes boss Wolff said h▨e had no issue with the call.
"I haven't seen the detail, I've just seen 'four 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5最新开奖结果:George Russell was only 11th after being knocked out in SQ2🧸 when rain started to fall.
"Obviously, the d🐲riving is most important in thꦦe wet. It shows that it’s about tyre preparation,” Wolff said of Hamilton’s lap.
“We did the right thing on t🤡he final run. The tyres were in a sweet spot combined with a gr🥀eat drive, which made the time.”
After complaining that his intermediate tyres were not w💧orking, Hamilton abandoned his first lap of SQ3 to retur♎n to the pits, where Mercedes fitted him with a fresh set.
“That was on purpose,” Wolff explained. “We changed the speꦜcs of the tyres and played around with the pressure.
“But🧜 the point is that - and you saw George - both cars ℱwere not competitive in Q2 because the tyres never gripped.
“Our car and generating grip is not an easy task. W൩e failed in Q1 and Q2 but got it right in Q3.⛎”
Asked if Mercedes can beat 🔴McLaren in the sprint race, Wolff said: “We should have💯 the pace in the dry.
“I don’t think we haveไ the pace against the Red Bulls, but we are against the McLarens.
“Havin♛g 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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