Wehrlein not solely focussed on beating Sauber

Pascal Wehrlein says he and Manor are not solely focussed on beating Sauber at the Mexican Grand Prix.

The German delivered a strong qualifying performance on Saturday, advancing through to Q2 for the fourth time this year.

However, Wehrlein will line up just behind Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson. With Manor holding 10th place in the Constructors’ standings, one point ahead of the scoreless Swiss team, Wehrlein admits finishing ahead of Sauber is crucial but insists his strategy will not revolve around that only goal.

“The first priority is to extract the maximum […] to get the best result possible,” the 2015 DTM champion said. “And then of course in terms of strategy there could be some possibilities, that we undercut or stop earlier because we want to be in front of Sauber, but now it’s the normal plan of strategy as always.

“We always try to make something better than the other teams or surprise them with something. We are not just focussing on Sauber and focussing on what they are doing, the programme we try to make the maximum out of the situation, then of course the target is to be in front of Sauber.

“I think it could be a good race for us, our pace looked competitive on the long run, and everyone is struggling with the tyre temperatures, especially in the free practice sessions.

“In qualifying the track was a bit hotter so it was a bit more easy, but still it’s quite hard for the tyres and graining, not enough heat in the tyres, but in qualifying it’s different than the race.”

Looking back at his impressive Saturday performance, Wehrlein said the end result was actually on par with his expectations.

“I think it was more or less what we hoped for. We hoped to be in Q2, we hoped to be in front of Sauber, we didn’t manage it to be in front of both Saubers, but I think we are more or less in the place where we expect to be or hope to be.”

Wehrlein has scored Manor's only point this year, finishing 10th at the Austrian Grand Prix.

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