Mercedes was nervous coming into the Singapore Grand Prix weekend. Although this team has undisputedly dominated Formula 1 for three straight seasons, there were genuine concerns about its potential form on the Marina Bay circuit, thanks to a woeful performance here 12 months ago.
Back then Mercedes endured an anomalous struggle in the middle of an otherwise peerless run of form, the only time it has been defeated on pure pace alone throughout a GP weekend under these V6 hybrid turbo F1 regulations.
Lewis Hamilton trailed Daniil Kvyat's pacesetting Red Bull by more than three tenths of a second after Friday practice here in 2015, and Mercedes went backwards on the Saturday as it failed to get the super-soft tyre into the correct working temperature range.