Wolff dissatisfied with small gap to Ferrari in Barcelona qualifying

Toto Wolff admitted that he is dissatisfied with Mercedes' tiny advantage over Formula 1 championship rival Ferrari despite taking its fourth pole position in five races on Saturday in Barcelona.

Lewis Hamilton edged out Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel by just 0.051 seconds in the final stage of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday, marking his third pole of the year.

Mercedes brought a raft of updates to Barcelona for its W08 car in the hope of forging a gap over Ferrari, leaving Wolff somewhat disappointed that the gap was not bigger in Q3. He did however take pleasure in the turnaround from pre-season testing when Ferrari dominated proceedings, outpacing Mercedes.

"[Pole] is satisfying but the gap is not very satisfying," Wolff said.

"If you consider that we didn't have a great Barcelona test coming out on pole in Barcelona is satisfying, but it's very close.

"I'm pretty happy because Barcelona wasn't really great in testing, and we're taking it step by step.

"If you would have told me that we would have ended up on pole and we have two cars capable on pole, I would have taken it, so it's OK."

Valtteri Bottas qualified third in the sister Mercedes car despite a lack of running in practice on Saturday morning due to a power unit change.

"We had an engine change yesterday night because of an electrical problem, and once we put on the new engine so we put the old engine back in," Wolff explained. "We had the new engine in, we had an electrical problem, we fitted the other engine, we had a water leak, we fitted the other engine and we are on the old engine again now.

"So a lot of work for the mechanics overnight, so we're back on the first power unit, which could compromise Valtteri's race a little bit, not a lot, because the normal race cycle would have been five races anyway. It compromised Valtteri's day because he lacked the laps in the morning before qualifying."