One driver is rising and the other is far behind – Toto Wolff has explained the huge gap between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton and identified the deciding factor in qualifying.
The third free practice also ended with a red flag in Las Vegas, but this time due to a driver error. Alexander Albon crashed his car into the wall due to the heat, and the stadium was forced to cancel the last 4 minutes.
This largely determined the final result, with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, among others, trying to improve when the interruption occurred. Thus George Russell ended up in pole position for Mercedes, ahead of Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant. The British driver gave his colleague Lewis Hamilton 0.760 seconds, even though they were on the track at the same time and with the same tires.
According to team boss Toto Wolff, everything is decided by tire management and warm-up gestures at a Las Vegas track. “It’s free practice and George was the fastest, but what was interesting was what we learned. He got faster and faster, while the other teams didn’t have that in the second rubber. Now we have to get our heads together.” He said no Service TVto.
German Sky SportsHe added that it is almost impossible to achieve a really good time in the first round. “The only person who was able to do it was Verstappen, but on the first lap he was in front of him as well. And it’s getting colder. It will be interesting.”
The difference between his rivals was precisely the number of warm-up laps. “George did well in two rounds of qualifying. That was the difference. Lewis didn’t feel very comfortable in the car, but we definitely learned a lot.”
According to Wolff, it’s clear how much of the differences can simply be down to differences in tire setup.
“Just look at the difference between Piastri and Norris. In the last three races, Norris has really dominated, but not this time. And we had that too. They came out at the same time, on the same tires, and the difference is eight-tenths. It’s almost a separate science. Once you start sliding, you won’t be able to get the tire back. Then you won’t have the performance you had in the first round.”
Although Mercedes was wary of the long straights in Las Vegas, it is very good at top speed, according to Wolff. “They are really fast in the straits. They also said they are very fast, and I have never heard such comments from them before…”
Regarding training for the time trial, he said: “It will be tight again. You have to push. Now they are still at a civilized distance from the walls, but we will see some scratches on the cars…”
