Lewis and Nico to start P5 and P6 respectively for Singapore Grand Prix. The team will start on the third row of the grid tomorrow, missing out on pole position for the first time in 24 races.
– P5 and P6 certainly doesn’t reflect our expectations or the results we have been used to in recent seasons – said Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport . Clearly, our car has not lost a huge amount of performance from one weekend to the next, but we just haven’t got to grips with the circuit this weekend.
– Already yesterday we were struggling and we just couldn’t pull out the lap time today; the drivers were on the edge and closely matched but we simply lacked grip compared to Ferrari and Red Bull, who were very impressive indeed. It looks like we have taken a wrong turn somewhere in the set-up or how we approached this weekend, but we will need to do some careful analysis to understand why that has happened. For now, our focus is a tough race tomorrow night. On a circuit which is so tough for the cars and drivers, and where overtaking is very difficult, we shouldn’t expect miracles tomorrow. It’s going to be a day for damage limitation – he added.
Lewis qualified fifth and Nico sixth after struggling for grip. This year’s pole lap from Vettel was just under 2 seconds quicker (1:43.885) than last years’ time set by Lewis (1:45.681).
