George Russell won the short race after passing Max Verstappen, who struggled on his medium tires compared to the Briton’s softs.
Russell and Lewis Hamilton will start from the front row on Sunday, with Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez immediately behind.
Although Mercedes showed good pace in the sprint, track engineering director Andrew Shovlin warned potentially warmer conditions could favor the Milton Keynes-based team in the grand prix itself.
ANALYSIS: Why Mercedes can realistically resist Verstappen to win in Brazil
“If we look at all the data we’ve had all year, Max is going to be fast,” Shovlin said. “If the track is warmer, that will probably solve some of their problems.
“They looked like they were limited at the front, that issue is going to ease a bit. And they won’t be on the wrong tire either. We all have to ride a medium or a hard as well as the tender. So we expect a tougher battle.
“But we couldn’t have put ourselves in a better position today. It’s great to have both cars up front. And recently we’ve had decent race pace.”
“So we’ll see what we can do. We don’t expect it to be anything other than a very, very intense battle. But we’re desperately trying to get our first victory.”
Verstappen was compromised by starting with the medium tyre, which did not perform as well as the softs used by his rivals.
“It doesn’t follow that they were unaware that the medium was a weak tire,” Shovlin said of the choice.
“Maybe it’s because they knew it was a weak tyre, and they’re getting rid of it today, rather than having to run two tomorrow. So I suspect it was strategically the lesser of two evils.”
George Russell, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Shovlin said the team found a “good window” with W13 on Saturday.
“If you watch a sprint race in general, you have an hour where you are free to change the setup and then you are locked out when you go for qualifying,” he told Autosport when asked. about the impressive sprint performance.
“And it goes without saying that if you have the right settings to start with, you are in a good position. The car was running reasonably well, the track was quite tricky on Friday.
“This morning we didn’t feel like we were on top form, with a lot of overheating at the back, and maybe the cooler conditions were fine for us today.
“We thought that would definitely solve some of the problems. But it just seemed to fall into a good window. And obviously we had both cars on the right tyre, which helped.”
Shovlin praised Russell for his charging performance in the sprint, during which he passed Verstappen after several daring attempts.
“He did a great job dealing with the pressure up front and dealing with a guy like Max, who’s probably the hardest to deal with,” Shovlin said.
“Since George was at Williams, we knew he could race. And he’s very good at overtaking.
“So it was no surprise the performance he put in, but it was fantastic driving. And from the start of the year we knew we had a long, long journey to get to a point where we can win races.
“It’s encouraging that we’re starting to see some of the milestones that you see along this journey.
“Absolutely faultless performance from him. Off the line, we were surprised he put so much pressure on Max, but the real surprise was when he just started bringing it back later, and really started to hunt him down.”
George Russell won the short race after passing Max Verstappen, who struggled on his medium tires compared to the Briton’s softs.
Russell and Lewis Hamilton will start from the front row on Sunday, with Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez immediately behind.
Although Mercedes showed good pace in the sprint, track engineering director Andrew Shovlin warned potentially warmer conditions could favor the Milton Keynes-based team in the grand prix itself.
ANALYSIS: Why Mercedes can realistically resist Verstappen to win in Brazil
“If we look at all the data we’ve had all year, Max is going to be fast,” Shovlin said. “If the track is warmer, that will probably solve some of their problems.
“They looked like they were limited at the front, that issue is going to ease a bit. And they won’t be on the wrong tire either. We all have to ride a medium or a hard as well as the tender. So we expect a tougher battle.
“But we couldn’t have put ourselves in a better position today. It’s great to have both cars up front. And recently we’ve had decent race pace.”
“So we’ll see what we can do. We don’t expect it to be anything other than a very, very intense battle. But we’re desperately trying to get our first victory.”
Verstappen was compromised by starting with the medium tyre, which did not perform as well as the softs used by his rivals.
“It doesn’t follow that they were unaware that the medium was a weak tire,” Shovlin said of the choice.
“Maybe it’s because they knew it was a weak tyre, and they’re getting rid of it today, rather than having to run two tomorrow. So I suspect it was strategically the lesser of two evils.”
George Russell, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Shovlin said the team found a “good window” with W13 on Saturday.
“If you watch a sprint race in general, you have an hour where you are free to change the setup and then you are locked out when you go for qualifying,” he told Autosport when asked. about the impressive sprint performance.
“And it goes without saying that if you have the right settings to start with, you are in a good position. The car was running reasonably well, the track was quite tricky on Friday.
“This morning we didn’t feel like we were on top form, with a lot of overheating at the back, and maybe the cooler conditions were fine for us today.
“We thought that would definitely solve some of the problems. But it just seemed to fall into a good window. And obviously we had both cars on the right tyre, which helped.”
Shovlin praised Russell for his charging performance in the sprint, during which he passed Verstappen after several daring attempts.
“He did a great job dealing with the pressure up front and dealing with a guy like Max, who’s probably the hardest to deal with,” Shovlin said.
“Since George was at Williams, we knew he could race. And he’s very good at overtaking.
“So it was no surprise the performance he put in, but it was fantastic driving. And from the start of the year we knew we had a long, long journey to get to a point where we can win races.
“It’s encouraging that we’re starting to see some of the milestones that you see along this journey.
“Absolutely faultless performance from him. Off the line, we were surprised he put so much pressure on Max, but the real surprise was when he just started bringing it back later, and really started to hunt him down.”