Ferrari will keep Mercedes 'on our toes' - Wolff

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Toto Wolff says Mercedes will be feeling the pressure from Ferrari during the Canadian Grand Prix after being run close in qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton took pole position by less than 0.1s from team-mate Nico Rosberg, but Sebastian Vettel was less than 0.2s off pole in third. Ferrari has introduced an upgraded turbo this weekend and while Wolff believes there was more potential for Mercedes in qualifying he is expecting a close race.

"We’ve looked at last year’s pace difference and it was almost five-tenths," Wolff said. "It is a power-sensitive circuit but it is a circuit which is difficult on the tyre and it was about getting the tyre in the right window.

"Is time representative? Maybe the theoretical lap is representative, 12.6s for Mercedes, 12.9s for Ferrari. That is academic it doesn’t count. They are just shy of two tenths of us and that will keep us on our toes."

With Red Bull also appearing closer to Mercedes in recent races, Wolff says it is natural the order is closing up after more than two years of the current regulations.

"We are coming back to normality. We were in a lucky situation for two years to be the dominant team, and now what we are seeing is that the gaps between the top three or four teams are really shrinking. Ultimately this is the reason why we are all here, so my feeling is that this is pretty much the normal situation now."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.