Mercedes ‘gremlins’ remain despite Australia gains

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell made great strides to qualify P5 and P6 in Australia but the Mercedes W13 is not cured, Toto Wolff has warned.

It appeared Mercedes were facing a long and difficult race weekend at Albert Park following Friday practice, with neither driver able to finish the day inside the top 10.

Thankfully for Mercedes though, qualifying was a far better showing with Hamilton securing P5 on the grid while Russell will line up P6.

Team principal Toto Wolff is, of course, very happy both drivers were able to find a few tenths, taking them comfortably into the top 10.

But despite that improvement, Wolff cannot pretend all the “gremlins” in the W13 are gone, so their road to recovery is an ongoing challenge.

P5 and P6 on the grid Down Under! Thanks for all the support so far this weekend, Team. pic.twitter.com/51qBGh0a6T

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) April 9, 2022

Highlights from Australian Grand Prix qualifying

Russell: Porpoising solution to bring 'huge chunk of lap time'

Norris: Nice to see Mercedes don't always win

Vettel feels like he's 'arriving late to school'

No 'magic fix' in place for Mercedes at Australian GP

Gené: 'Leclerc 2.0 is less emotional'

Australian Grand Prix practice round-up

Hamilton, Verstappen joke about piercings

Red Bull 'a tiny bit behind' Ferrari

Horner predicts 'MotoGP race' in Melbourne

On the subject of whether set-up changes to the W13 can directly lead to that improvement, Wolff, quoted by GPFans, said: “I think set-up directions are very important and we have seen the drivers were much happier with the car today than yesterday.

“Night and day were the words Lewis chose.

“We are talking a couple of tenths, maybe a bit more. The long runs will be