"Much better than we expected," claims Wolff as he reflects on Mercedes' brilliant qualifying pace in Bahrain

Following a strong performance on Saturday, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has claimed that the Brackley-based outfit performed much better than they had hoped for ahead of the qualifying session.

McLaren looked the quickest car all through the Sakhir weekend, and the papaya team continued to impress in qualifying that turned into a nail-biting session.

Oscar Piastri set a 1m 29.841s on his last lap to beat the Mercedes of George Russell, who set mighty lap times in the second and third qualifying segment.

However, given McLaren's dominant form across the practice sessions, it was a brilliant effort from Russell to bag second on the grid, pushing Piastri surprisingly close. However, he will serve a one-place grid drop penalty for a sporting infringement, but a third spot on the grid will give him every chance to fight for a podium place in today's Bahrain race.

His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli backed his team mate up with fourth, his best qualifying performance of the season. However, he will also lose a spot due to the same sporting infringement.

Asked to reflect on his team's performance in Bahrain, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has claimed that the Brackley-based outfit performed much better than they had hoped for ahead of the qualifying session.

“Today’s Qualifying went much better than we expected. We were hopeful of fighting for best of the rest behind the McLarens, so to post the second and fourth fastest times was pleasing. There is also plenty of learnings we can take from today. In the daytime heat of FP3, we were looking a long way adrift of the McLarens. As we headed into the evening, and the track conditions cooled, we continued to close the gap.

"It was still warm out there, but it definitely came a little more towards us. Both drivers executed their final laps well and put themselves in a good position for tomorrow. Ultimately, following the post-session penalty, we will start P3 and P5 tomorrow. That still gives us a good chance of fighting for the podium.

"This is one of the most race pace-biased Grands Prix of the year so, if we have the pace in the car, both George and Kimi will hopefully be able to move forward," concluded the Austrian.

Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained that the high ambient and track temperatures and the gusting wind have made it very difficult for drivers to deliver a consistent performance.

“The final practice session was very challenging from a balance point of view. The hot track was causing a lot of overheating and the wind had shifted which always takes a little time for the drivers to adjust to.

"Rather like the first practice on Friday, it was hard to take much from it and we moved back towards our setups from the end of yesterday to give us a better chance of going into Qualifying with a car that we understood. The grip in the evening session was much better and we were showing good pace.

"Both drivers put in good laps and it was encouraging to see that the gap to the McLarens was much smaller. Both felt they could have improved on their time slightly which is encouraging but good to see that the car is performing well at a track where we have struggled in the recent past.”