Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff admits💜 Red Bull is catching up to his team following a competitive Eifel Grand Prix qualifying. 

For the 11th time🌊 in a row Mercedes topped qualifying this season, but it marked the closest the German manufacturer had come to being knocked off ไits perch as the kings of Saturday. 

Max Verstappen made it a thrilling three-way fight for pole at the✨ Nurburgring as Red Bull moveಌd closer than ever to its chief rival. 

It was the fifth time in the last eight races that Verstappen had qualified third on the grid but he was narrowly unable to end Mercedes’ 100% pole record in 202🍃0. 

The Dutchman ultimately ended up 0.293s off the lap time which saw Valtteri Bottas claim his third pole position of the year from Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, but unlike the majority of qualifying sessions♒ this season, Verstappen had looked like a pole contender throughout.

Ve𝄹rstappen’s pace was eye-catching on Saturday. Having topped Q1, he was the faste♏st driver during the first runs in Q3, before Hamilton, and then Bottas, usurped the Red Bull driver with late improvements. 

Had Verstappen been able to replicate his best effort from Q2 - a 1m25.467 - it would be🍌 he, not Hamilton, lining up on the front row alongside Bottas. It was Red Bull’s outright fastest lap and just 0.198s off Mercedes’ quickest. 

Red Bull has been quietly chipping away at its deficit to Mercedes in recent races following some encouraging performances at Mugello and Sochi, and it seems that a combination of updates, and Friday’s curtailed run𓆏ning d🎶ue to fog, helped the team cut the gap further. 

It has been a trademark of recent campaigns for Red Bull to start off slowly before making large gains in the second ha🅷lf of seasons to dramatically reduce the gap, and occasionally get on level 🦹terms with Mercedes. 

In 2019, Red Bull appeared to steal a march on its rivals following the summer break and often had the fastest overall package compared to Mercedes in the latter rounds of the y🌜ear, with Verstappen grabbing top spot in qualifying on two occasions and winning in Brazil. 

Sꩵpeaking after qualifying, Mercedes team principal Wolff indicated that his side had begun to tail off development on its W11 to start focusing on next year, but acknowledged the increased threat coming from Red Bull.

“We tend to see thi🌸s pattern that Red Bull catches up tow🐈ards the end of the season,” Wolff said. 

“I guess it’s good for the championship. We are deployin🦋g the strategy that we believe is right, balancing next year and t🍸his year. 

“We can see the results on 🌸track but we need to be vigilant and accept that the competition will increase over the last few ra🌄ces.”

Despite admitting he was disappointed not to have t🎃aken pole, Verstappen was buoyed by Red Bull’s performa𓆏nce at the Nurburgring and credited its strongest qualifying of the season to the team’s latest upgrade package. 

That was despite Red Bull getting a full handling of its new parts after 🍒the loss of running on Fܫriday, with the cancellation of both practice sessions preventing the Milton Keynes squad from properly evaluating the upgrade. 

“We brought a few up🎃grades, so the car is working a b🔜it better,” he explained. 

“Of course, with only having run today there are still a lo💃t of things to go through and analyse and optimise as well, be🅷cause of the understeer I had in the car.

“But it’s definitely a good step forward, so we are on the right way. I just hope ꧂we can keep heading into th♋at direction and keep improving.”

Albon, who has struggled with instability in his RB16 throughout 2020, enjoyed a much-improved showing as he took fifth, having been pipped late on by Ferrari’s 🅘staring Charles Leclerc. 

The Thai racer could also feel the benefits of wh📖at he described as “quite a big” upgrade. 

“It’s a whole part really, bi🍌ts and pieces front to back,” Albon said♛.

“To be honest, we can’t compare it to the previous package without 💙the Friday running. The plan was to run the cars old package versus the new package.

“So, with limited running, we’ve kind of just started on it. But꧅ it feels good. It feels quick. It was feeling pretty strong straightaway.

“I was happꦍy with it. And I think it’s𝕴 a good step forward. It put us closer obviously to the Mercs.”

Albon did urge some caution, explaining that the characteristics of the Eifel venue, coup❀led with particularly low temperatures seen over the weekend, may have played to the strengths of Red Bull’s car and denied Mercedes from unleashing its true potential. 

“I don’t want to say Mercedes struggled but they don’t seem as quick,” he added. “When you look at the other teams as well it’s not like we’re miles ahead🐽 of everyone else. I would put it in that sense.”

Red Bull’s gains in recent w🌳eeks highlight the team’s determination to succeed in its quest to mount a sustained title challenge to Mercedes, despite the impending departure of po☂wer unit supplier Honda. 

While it does need to finalise a succession plan regarding its engines from 202🐷2 and beyond, Red Bull is set to be boosted by an all-new Honda power unit for next season, which it hopes will help it further cut Mercedes’ current advantage in the power stakes.

“We are committed to 2021 so it’s🐬 full force, full effort for the rest of this year but 🎶also 2021,” team principal Christian Horner insisted on Friday. 

“It’s great that Honda really stepped up for nℱext year as well. They’re not looking at leaving on🌊 a whimper. 

“They really want to p💙ush throughout next season as well which is a real fighting spir𝓡it, both within Sakura and within Milton Keynes.”

Red Bull is ﷺproving a persistent thorn in Mercedes’ side, and providing it can continue its recent upward trajectory, it could well make the life of F1’s reigning world champions that bit harder. &nbsಌp;