Mercedes’ George Russell hopes he hasn’t compromised its race prospects for single-lap performance after he qualified third for Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
Russell produced a stellar final effort to clinch third, with Lewis Hamilton ending up six places further back despite trailing just two-tenths behind his team-mate.
Mercedes had appeared to have been lagging behind on the short fuel runs throughout pre-season testing but Hamilton fronted a 1-2 for the German marque in FP2.
Russell credited some further tweaks to the car for the turnaround that saw him secure a surprise second-row start, which leaves him well-placed for tomorrow’s race.
“I think after testing last week, we wouldn’t have expected to be qualifying third, and then yesterday driving, we made a lot of set-up changes over the course of the weekend,” he said.
“As I mentioned before, Lewis and I were back at the factory, the team have been doing a really great job to find these small improvements.
“And we were fastest in FP2, Lewis and I P1 and P2, which caught us by surprise.
“But as we saw, it was so close out there. If you take Max [Verstappen] out of the equation, I think it was two-tenths between P2 and P8 or something. And I don’t think we’ve seen F1 like this for a long, long time.
“So we’re only dream and wish that was fighting for pole position and victory. And I think we’re going to have a great battle on our hands for the next spot [behind Verstappen].”
However, with Hamilton stating that his set-up should be more optimised for longer stints, Russell is cautious his changes could still leave him vulnerable in the race.
“I think what we saw in testing was our qualifying pace being a little bit offset, and our race pace probably being the next best to Max,” he added. “Now we’ve improved the qualifying pace, we hope it hasn’t hindered our race pace.
“It’s uncharacteristically cold here in Bahrain at the moment, I think tomorrow is going to be about 16 degrees by the time we go to the race. We’re normally talking 30s or mid-30s here in Bahrain.
“So there’s a lot of unexpected things to come. The Soft tyre is performing well around this circuit, and the race, maybe people do two sets of the Softs, two sets of the Hard, a Medium.
“But it’s the first race of the season, and I think we’re all just excited to get going.”
The Briton has also denied that the cooler ambient conditions prevalent in Bahrain this week contributed to Mercedes sustaining a stronger run compared to recent years.
When asked whether the colder temperatures have aided Mercedes in Bahrain, Russell retorted: “No, I’d probably say the opposite to be honest.
“We historically have always struggled when the temperatures have been a little bit cooler, and that was always the case last year.
“But we know that with this W15 car, it’s a totally different beast, a car that we’re much happier with and probably the lessons we’ve learned over the last two years, we need to put aside and go in with a totally open mind. Time will tell when we go to the future races, but I’m feeling really happy in the car.”
Russell split the Ferraris while also beating the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez and he anticipates a close fight with those drivers for the second and third podium spots.
“I think the race is going to be really close with Charles, the Ferraris, with Checo tomorrow,” Russell continued.
“And we can see what we can do about Max, but right now, he’s doing an incredible job.”
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