In the opening five rounds, Russel🃏l led Hamilton 4-1 in the qualifying head-to-head, while 🐠it was 2-2 on race day.

Since Monaco, Hamilton has only been out-qualified by Russell on one occasion, while the Austrian Grand Prix was the only time he finished behind (due to a penꦏalty for track limits).

It’s bee🐎n a remarkable shift in momentum at Mercedes, particularly as Russell managed to out-score Hamilton points-wise in the championship.

Speaking after Friday practice at the🐓 , Wolff explained whꦐy he doesn’t want to assess Russell’s struggles until after Singapore.

“I think we must wait to [see] how this pans out and we have more data points,” he told Sky. “This race and Monza, maybe Singapore, three totally different tracks an𝐆d see whether therꦿe was a shift because of the update we introduced.”

Russell struggled again for꧙ one-lap pace relative to Hamilton in FP2, nearly four-❀tenths between the two Brits.

“I think on the first run this afternoon with the harder compound, the medium they used, he [Russell] was very competitive ꦰand then putting on the soft it wasn’t any more,” Wolff added. “I wouldn’t make too much of this today. I think tomorrow we will see.”

Wolff also revealed Mercedes are putting greater “emphasis on the race” rather than their qualifying𓃲 performance.

“We made a big improvement from Friday to Saturday last year which we’re not 100 per cent sure we unde🧔rstand yet but the car was competitive,” he explained.

“I th🦹ink putting an emphasis o⭕n the race, like we did now, makes more sense than just chasing the pole position.”