George Russell seemed a bit perplexed after qualifying for the Formula 1 race. For the fourth time in the past six races, a Mercedes got stuck in Q2 – and for the third time it happened to Russell, who after Baku and Barcelona again did not make it into the top 10 and has to start Sunday’s race from eleventh place.
“We have to understand what’s going on at the moment,” wonders the Brit. “We struggle a bit, especially on Saturdays,” which in this case was a Friday.
“I just wasn’t quick enough today. I think I just didn’t have the right feeling for the car from the first laps in practice.” And because Spielberg is a sprint event, he didn’t have much time to do anything about it.
Team-mate Lewis Hamilton showed that the Mercedes has potential with fifth place, but Russell didn’t get there. Although his fastest lap in Q2 was axed due to track limits, the time of 1:05.408s was only 0.020 faster than Russell’s existing time and would not have been enough to oust Alexander Albon from tenth place.
“Let’s see what we can achieve overnight by tomorrow,” he says, but still sees a chance of a good result: “Of course, eleventh place isn’t the best starting position, but we’ve already achieved some good results from further back this year , so all is not lost.”
In Baku, after eleventh on the grid, he only finished eighth, but in Barcelona Russell still made it up to the podium from position twelfth.
And: The sprint format offers Russell the chance to do better on Saturday – like in Baku, when he finished fourth in the sprint shootout and the sprint race itself. “Unfortunately, you can’t score many points when things go like this. But I think the race will offer a bit more than what we saw in Baku,” he says.
Wolff is disappointed
For team boss Toto Wolff, qualifying was “disappointing overall”, as he told ‘Sky Sports F1’. Mercedes actually had the expectation that Ferrari and Aston Martin would be able to fight for second or third place, “but we underperformed there,” he admits.
Although Hamilton at least had Aston Martin under control, he was missing almost four tenths of a second in second place – and that on a short track like Spielberg. “It was a difficult session,” says the seven-time world champion.
“The track isn’t easy. Our car has never really suited this track in the past and that was shown again today.” But he takes fifth place with him and will try to make something of it.
Hamilton satisfied with fifth place
“It’s a good, strong starting position,” he says. “I think last year I started further back and it was a tough race.” In fact, after an accident in Q3, he only started from ninth place and then finished eighth in the sprint race, which was still responsible for the starting grid at the time. From there it went onto the podium on Sunday.
“So I hope that we will have a better race on Sunday,” says Hamilton. The long run pace in the first practice session was at least the third best, he says, but he’s not entirely sure.
“I think the Red Bulls and Ferraris were fastest. Or maybe the Aston? Maybe we’re fourth, I’m not sure. We’re just trying to focus on being as quick as possible.”