'Curious' Mercedes primed for Sprint attack - Wolff

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has revealed the team will approach the United States Grand Prix Sprint "with curiosity".

Lewis Hamilton narrowly missed out on the fastest time in Sprint Shootout, with his fastest lap time coming in less than a tenth of a second down on Max Verstappen at the Circuit of the Americas.

The seven-time World Champion will start from third on the grid having been shaded out of the front row by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, while teammate George Russell had a more challenging session, managing only the eighth fastest time at the end of SQ3.

With just a single practice session being held on Friday, teams had little time to log long-run data - leaving Wolff coy over Mercedes' chances.

“It wasn't really a long run, but we at least put four laps or five laps together [during practice],” Wolff told Sky Sports F1.

“We'll approach it with curiosity. I think if we're able to have a little bit of a better performance who knows, we’ll fight for a strong podium.”

Wolff in 'two minds'

Wolff conceded that he was disappointed not to see one of his cars take pole position for the sprint race given there were such tight margins.

“I think it's just about understanding tyres a little bit more,” he said. “I’m in two minds here because we had such a massive gap at these kinds of tracks to our competitors before.

“Suzuka we were nowhere, last year in Austin I think it was six-tenths and now we’re right in the mix.

“When you’re that close to pole position there’s always a bit of disappointment.”