Mercedes boss Toto Wolff makes two jokes in response to George Russell’s Hungary GP pole | F1 | Sport

Toto Wolff jokingly asked his Mercedes colleagues to make a record of everything they did in the build-up to George Russell’s stunning pole lap at the end of Q3 ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Russell left it until the dying seconds to pip Carlos Sainz with an incredible final run to get the Silver Arrows back on the front row of the grid for the very first time this season.

It was a hugely impressive effort from the Mercedes man, who will lead the other 19 drivers off the line at the start of Sunday’s race as a result of his brilliant performance in qualifying. Wolff was visibly thrilled with the result and took the opportunity to joke around in his post-qualifying interview with Sky Sports F1, with Mercedes finally at the top of the standings once again after a difficult campaign to date.

“First of all, I am glad that I am invited again here, you only take the winners so you opportunistic guys,” said Wolff with a smile.

“We just said we need to write down everything we did this morning, including the food and drinks we drank in order to replicate, so we will take it. We knew we wanted to play it easy until the summer break.”

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Wolff went on to express his pride in Russell after clinching his first-ever pole around the twists and turns of Hungaroring before admitting that he would have loved to have seen Lewis Hamilton, who ended up in seventh place, alongside his Mercedes team-mate on the front row of the grid.

“The truth is we saw it from the beginning of qualifying that our tyres were in the right window and the car was balanced,” added Wolff.

“They drove it really well then gained confidence from run to run and this was the result. In this moment you want to cry joy for pole position but equally you know the car was good for him [Hamilton] to be there as well, very, very bittersweet. 

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“That is a solid result, we were always off the pace on a single lap and now we are on pole so let’s see what we can do tomorrow. If we have the pace then I feel like we are in the fun and games at the front again.”

It remains to be seen whether Russell will be able to convert pole position into a maiden Grand Prix victory when the five red lights go out in Hungary on Sunday afternoon. He will be firmly tested off the line by the Ferrari duo of Sainz and Leclerc, while Max Verstappen will be hoping to claw himself back into contention after a power unit failure in Q3 forced him to settle for a 10th-placed grid start.

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