The Austrian GP kicked off this weekend. An eventful qualifying ensued ahead of the sprint race on Saturday. Qualifying ended up being a disaster for the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. The duo both crashed out in Q3. However, apart from the disappointment of both their cars needing major repairs ahead of tomorrow’s sprint, what irked team boss Toto Wolff was the fans.

The Red Bull Ring was as usual packed with the Max Verstappen’s Orange Army. They did not hold back the cheers when Hamilton slid into the wall, spelling an end to his qualifying.

Wolff spoke to Sky Sports after qualifying and said, “We just need to speak more to the fans cheering when a car is in the wall or booing a driver who gives an interview”. He went on to add, “It’s not what we would do with our competitors and enemies even though you would think there is some animosity out there. Nobody should actually do it”.

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Regardless of the outcome in today’s qualifying, the two have a chance to redeem themselves in the Sprint race on Saturday. Especially Hamilton, who will be hoping to continue his good run of results after 2 podiums in the last 2 races.

Austrian GP redemption for Hamilton after a dismal end to qualifying?

Mercedes have slowly made up some ground in the recent races. The team enjoyed a stellar British GP, with the W-13 looking quick and competitive, and hopes that the same carries into Spielberg this weekend.

After the race at Silverstone, Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin spoke in a debrief video, “The key thing for us here was seeing they actually performed as expected”. He added, “The other thing that was nice to see is there was a bit less bouncing, the car was behaving a bit more normally. It was easier for the drivers to work with it”.

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However, with the upgrades behaving as well as the team had hoped, Hamilton has a chance for another good showing. A victory has eluded him so far this season, but another strong performance with a little bit of luck could help Hamilton break the jinx.