Mercedes-Benz may not be out of the woods yet in certain terms when it comes to certain situations, but Robert Wickens was clearly a very happy man after pipping Timo Glock in the dying minutes of the final session during qualifying this afternoon at the Red Bull Ring by just 0.008 seconds.
The 25-year-old came back from a potential session-ending spin with just half of Q3 to go, saying that he “managed to keep calm and rounded off the session with a super lap.”
The 2011 World Series by Renault 3.5 Champion admitted that he literally pushed too hard that caused his spin during Q3, which was also the case for the Canadian during the two free practice sessions earlier on in the day.
Team mate Paul Di Resta was also compromised in his efforts following an accident in the final free practice session, which saw the Scot qualify in last place.
But apart from looking to finish the race as its eventual winner, Wickens also was proud to see that both Pascal Wehrlein and Christian Vietoris also made it into the final session, placing fifth and seventh respectively: “That was by no means an easy qualifying session, but they did a fantastic job. Three Mercedes-Benz drivers in the Top 8 represents a strong team performance.”
But there is still some of the Stuttgart ranks that are not yet up to the same pace as Wickens, which includes veteran driver Gary Paffett. “My car felt great all in all, so I don’t understand why I was two or three tenths down on my fellow Mercedes drivers. That’s still a little bit of a mystery that we will certainly solve.”
Now it just is a case of waiting to see what happens during the next 47 laps this afternoon, as the sixth race of the season will start from 13:30 local time.
