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Wehrlein's qualifying result 'proved he is special'

Toto Wolff says Pascal Wehrlein's qualifying performance at the Austrian Grand Prix has "proven that he is a special boy".

Wehrlein made it through to Q2 at the Red Bull Ring and with Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz unable to take part he duly outqualified Fernando Alonso and Romain Grosjean to secure 12th on the grid. It is Wehrlein's best qualifying performance to date and Wolff was left impressed by the young Mercedes driver.

Asked if he was pleased with Wehrlein's performance, Wolff replied: "Yeah very happy.

"The first race track that he has actually raced on, he didn’t know any of the others. Barcelona he knew from testing but it’s the first time that he can build on some experience he had before, and we didn’t underestimate him.

"When you come to Melbourne and Monaco and some of these tracks where you haven’t been there, it’s difficult to be there among the best drivers in the world and that’s why I’m delighted with his performance and certainly the first time this season that he has proven that he is a special boy."

Wehrlein himself admitted the competitive nature of Manor in Austria had given him a chance to display what he is capable of, as he secured the team's joint-best grid position.

"Today was an opportunity to show that I am quick and able to squeeze everything out of the car," Wehrlein said. "Today, there was an opportunity, I took it and it was good.

"I think [expected cooler temperatures] could help us tomorrow with tyre degradation, because we are always suffering with overheating and rear tyre degradation, but let’s see tomorrow. Today was super and hopefully, tomorrow, we are not suffering too much."

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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.