George Russell coughed and spluttered through his post-qualifying interview as he admitted he has been getting little sleep through illness.
The Brit has looked quick all weekend so far and hit the ground running in practice. He continued that momentum in qualifying with a strong performance to reach the second row of the grid for Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
He looked exhausted as he turned up in the media pen for his post-session interviews and coughed as he admitted he was not at the peak of his powers. "I've been really ill for the last two weeks and I've been really, really quick, so I don't know if I need to be ill more often or what it is," he joked.
"But for the last two weeks I've felt super comfortable in the car. I've had on average about three hours of sleep per night - maybe that's the secret everyone has been missing!"
Despite the strong result on paper, Russell gave the impression he was slightly underwhelmed. And that was understandable given he had shown great pace throughout practice and seemed to have nailed his car set-up from the get-go.
But it is a strong place for him to be. Mercedes are in a close fight with Ferrari for second place in the constructors' championship and so it will most likely come down to which team beats the other in Sunday's race.
Charles Leclerc is ahead of Russell in second place on the grid, and Lewis Hamilton had a horrible day condemned to just 11th place. But Carlos Sainz had an even worse result and qualified only 16th, opening the door for the Silver Arrows to get the job done.
Catch all the action from Formula One on Sky Sports and get exclusive access to races, qualifying and much more for every Grand Prix. From Max Verstappen to Lewis Hamilton, you won't miss a lap on Sky Sports.
Russell added: "Mixed feelings right now. We definitely would have taken P4 ahead of the weekend but, after this morning's performance - we were quickest every single lap - we only improved by six-tenths from practice to qualifying.
"Considering it was much colder and we had much less fuel in the car, we didn't make the jump that we should have. That was a little bit disappointing. We've got a fight with Ferrari in the constructors', but we're just going to treat it like any other race.
"I want to fight for the podium, I want to finish the season on a high. With Carlos down in P16 they're in a tricky position but, as I said, we'll treat it like a normal race and I think we'll have good pace over the McLaren and over Charles, so let's see."