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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admits that he didn't expect Ferrari to be so strong during qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix. The Scuderia outfit locked out the front row, holding a large gap to Mercedes behind, who had to settle for the second row.
The Silver Arrows have lost out to Ferrari in the opening two races of the season, with Sebastian Vettel taking victory in Australia and Bahrain. And with Ferrari looking strong again in China, Mercedes face a challenge to beat them on Sunday.
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But Wolff thinks that Mercedes has better race pace than Ferrari: "Tomorrow it's expected to be a lot warmer so I hope we have done the right thing set-up-wise and we have better pace in the race than Ferrari. There is not a lot of strategic plays either. If we have pace then we can undercut or overcut."
And he admits that he did not think Ferrari would be so dominant in qualifying: "No [we didn't expect Ferrari to be so strong]. They've been really strong all day. Their qualifying performance they put one on top and we really have something to think about.
"It's tricky. We are lacking grip. You can fall out of the window by the tyres getting too hot or being too cold. It's two extremes like we had in Bahrain. I think it's a tyre issue," he added.
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