George Russell has expressed his disappointment after being dumped out of qualifying in Q2 following an understeering issue which has plagued his weekend.
The Brit driver will start from 11th in the Singapore Grand Prix and marks his first appearance in the bottom half of the grid since the Miami Grand Prix earlier in the season.
“I was struggling with something relating to the brakes and the engine in FP1 and it was pushing me into the corners and it kind of felt like I had throttle on as I was going in,” Russell explained to Sky Sports F1 following the conclusion of qualifying.
“I didn’t have throttle and it isn’t that [issue] but that was sort of the feeling just sort of pushing me everywhere.
“It’s such a shame, I don’t think we would have been much better in Q3 because I don’t think we would have been able to resolve the problem. We’ve seen some indications already on the data of what it is so it’s one of those things. It’s really frustrating.”
Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton secured his best qualifying result of the season and the seven-time champion will start behind Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez in third place.
When asked if the issue on his W13 will be rectified for tomorrow’s grand prix and if Hamilton’s result is encouraging for himself and the team, Russell replied: “Well, I hope so. We need to, we definitely need to do something.
“Obviously it’s really disappointing for myself and the whole team. The car was looking strong here and obviously, Lewis was really, really fast but yeah, I just couldn’t make it work.
“Yeah it’s definitely an encouraging weekend but encouraging doesn’t mean anything when you don’t score points and ultimately this is a qualifying track.
“Fortunately, the degradation is looking pretty high. It could be a two-stop race tomorrow but it’s just a shame not to be out there now fighting for what we deserve to be fighting for in the top three.”
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