George Russell blamed a costly lunchtime sandwich for putting him “half a kilo” overweight heading into qualifying, saying he could have lined up P4 on Sunday’s Imola gird without it.
As racing drivers’ excuses go, a sandwich is novel, but Formula 1 qualifying is all about fine margins.
The Mercedes driver qualified in sixth place on Saturday, one place behind Oscar Piastri after the Australian was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen.
Carlos Sainz inherits fourth on the grid thanks to Piastri’s penalty and the Spaniard out-qualified Russell by a margin of just 0.001s, so the British driver’s sandwich reasoning has some merit.
“Yeah, I felt really happy today,” said Russell. “I felt really strong throughout qualifying. P6 was the maximum.
“It’s always annoying when it’s so close to the car ahead. I’m actually half a kilo too heavy this weekend myself.
“You don’t think that’s ever going to make a difference, but half a kilo would have put me P5, which would be P4 on the grid, so I’m blaming my sandwich at lunch for that one.”
Mercedes has introduced upgrades throughout the Miami and Emili Romagna Grand Prix weekends.
Russell was happy to see Mercedes’ progress, even if his lunch prevented him from achieving even more than P6 in qualifying.
“The car has been feeling probably the best it’s felt all season, to be honest, especially on such a challenging circuit like this,” Russell said.
“I feel confident. We know it’s directionally correct.”
McLaren meanwhile has made what Russell called “huge strides,” and the Mercedes driver even went as far as to say “They genuinely look like the fastest team right now.”
As a Mercedes engine customer, McLaren has stolen a march on its supplier over the last 12 months, but rather than be downbeat about it, Russell said it’s “motivational.”
He added, “It’s hugely competitive, this sport, and it’s so complex. We know where we’ve gone wrong.
“Unfortunately, we’ve gone wrong too many times over the last couple of years.
“We’ve got a clear direction where we need to reel it back from the overcompensation we made during this winter, but let’s see where it takes us in the coming months.
“Everyone’s bringing upgrades. You’ve seen McLaren brought an upgrade a couple of races ago, and it’s performing really well for them.
“Aston [Martin] have brought an upgrade this weekend, and it’s not performing so well for them.
“It goes to show how difficult and complex it is for everybody, but we’ve got to believe that we can make an upgrade and develop in the right direction.”
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