Wolff warns of Hamilton: 'They woke up the lion'

Lewis Hamilton can start from the front in Qatar on Sunday afternoon thanks to a strong qualifying session. Toto Wolff was more than satisfied with the pole position afterwards. Speaking to ServusTV he expressed his admiration for the Brit.

With a gap of 14 points to Max Verstappen, Hamilton cannot afford any setbacks in the final phase of the season. During qualifying he pulled out all the stops to set a good time. A time of 1:20:827 proved to be enough to keep Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas in front.

According to Wolff, the two Mercedes drivers provided an ideal scenario. "If I wanted to choose the starting positions, they would be one and three, because that's the clean side," responded the team boss of the German racing team. "But that's all theory. If Max gets to P1 at the start, he could win the race."

Hamilton fighting for every point

The Austrian sees that the race in Brazil has brought Hamilton a lot. "I think they woke up the lion on Saturday at Interlagos with the disqualification," stated Wolff, who has faith in the seven-time world champion. "Whoever is at the front in Qatar has a real advantage, because you can hardly overtake. The straight might be enough, but because of the fast corners you can't keep up."