George Russell embarrassed by traffic in qualifying

It was a bit of a surprise in these qualifications. A Mercedes failing in Q1. When comparing it to Lewis Hamilton’s performance, about forty minutes later, there are questions to be asked. Did George Russell have a lackluster Saturday or was he hindered? A bit of both.

All weekend, on a dry track, the British driver has consistently been falling behind his teammate, but has had the pace to qualify for Q2 and even Q3. During the first phase, on a track that was improving minute by minute, driver number 63 was unable to set a sufficiently interesting time to ensure a calm end to the session.

Overtaken by several drivers in the last corner

He had to relaunch himself in the final seconds. As he tried to create some space with the other drivers in front of him, he was overtaken by several competitors. These latter did not respect the unofficial Gentlemen’s agreement.

During the whole session, I was on track at the wrong place at the wrong time. Collectively, we took way too many risks. The car was so fast. We didn’t need to fuel up for one lap and get caught in all the traffic at the end, explains the Brit.

« We totally messed up »

« I was trying to respect the Gentlemen’s agreement, but I got overtaken by several cars, notably Pierre [Gasly], who passed me in the last corner. I had three tenths of a second gap even before starting my lap, it was ruined. I won’t blame any driver, it’s every man for himself. Collectively, we should have done a much better job. »

George Russell believes that the Gentlemen’s agreement « never really existed ». He goes on to say that he would have done the same as the other drivers in the same situation. « The track is big enough, it’s 4.5 km long and we’re using a one-kilometer space with ten cars, so we just have to look at ourselves in the mirror and admit that we messed up today. »