Toto Wolff reveals iPhone-like fix after George Russell near-disaster

Toto Wolff has revealed that Mercedes was forced to resort to an iPhone-like fix to rescue Chinese Grand Prix qualifying for George Russell.

Russell appeared as if his session was over when his W17 ground to a halt at the start of Q3 at the Shanghai International Circuit. Although he managed to get going again, he crawled back to the pits in third gear, and with the clock ticking.

Mercedes managed to apply a fix in time to send out the British driver for one flying lap at the end of the top-10 shoot-out, which he converted into second place on the grid.

Russell finished two-tenths of a second behind team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who became the youngest pole-sitter in F1 history.

Explaining what Mercedes did to get Russell going after what he felt was an "electrical problem", he said: "We had to power cycle the car three times.

"Basically like an iPhone, switch it on, switch it off, and the third time, it went. I didn't think he was going out, but then, to my surprise, we still did the lap."

Despite the all-Mercedes front row, it is an all-Ferrari second row, with seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton ahead of Charles Leclerc.

Ferrari has so far this season proven itself to be fast starting, with Wolff anticipating a problematic beginning and following laps.

"Let's see how they get away from the start," said Wolff. "And the Ferraris will be pushing like crazy tomorrow, like they did today and in Melbourne. It's certainly going to be entertaining."