Mercedes strategy chief James Vowles has confirmed rumours that the team actively sought to trick Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel into taking an unfavourable track position, ahead of last weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The race in Baku - which saw Silver Arrows drivers Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton claim first and second place respectively - started with a front-row lockout for Mercedes, after an impressive run for both drivers in Q3. 

Ahead of the final runs of the session, both Bottas and Hamilton pulled out of the garage and looked set to start their runs, only to pull up short in the final section of the pit-lane - an area normally reserved for practice starts. 

The move forced Vettel, in his more powerful Ferrari, to leapfrog both Mercedes drivers, and take to the track in clean air. 

This in turn allowed the Mercedes to benefit from the Ferrari's tow - a phenomenon which allows the trailing car to benefit from the air disruption caused by the leader, severely lowering the wind resistance suffered by the approaching driver. 

Whilst not normally a tactic deliberately deployed in qualifying, the importance of the additional speed gained from doing so was obviously not lost on Mercedes chief strategist Vowles, who spoke on the decision in the post-race Mercedes 'Pure Pitwall' debrief.  

"In qualifying the effect of the tow is very significant. In Baku, this effect is very extreme.

"It's around about four-tenths of a second in Baku, so a significant enough amount that you can or cannot be on pole as a result of it. 

"Over the last few races you've seen almost a Mexican standoff in the pit lane, everyone has their engine fired up and everyone's looking at each other but who's going to go out first. 

"In Shanghai you saw that we left very late and other cars weren't able to do their lap because they were so keen on getting the tow that the [final] flag came before they started their lap.

"In Baku we were very conscious of this effect could well dictate whether you were on pole or not.

The Ferrari of four-time champion Vettel had been predicted pre-race to benefit from Baku's longer straight and higher average speeds, to provide a serious threat to the dominance of Mercedes over the opening three races.

The Silver Arrows proved to be one step ahead of their rivals once again, though, and Vowles confirmed that the plan had been concocted prior to the weekend, with the intention of nullifying the Scuderia's straight-line speed advantage. 

"What we decided to do therefore is send our cars out a little bit earlier which would pull the whole train of cars behind us – that worked – and then do a practice start, simply so that we did not end up at the front of the queue because we felt the effect was so powerful.

"This is taking enormous risks and indeed we only crossed the line several seconds before the flag as a result of this.

Whilst most of the initial reaction has been centred around the team and the elaborate planning that must have gone into such a high-pressure scheme, Vowles was quick to put the praise back onto both of the drivers. 

"For them, it's very difficult. You're asking them to break up what is the normal routine of going out for Qualifying 3, a very high-pressure situation, and doing something different.

"They understood exactly what was required of them and they did a fantastic job."