George Russell has detailed the issues that cost him pole position during qualifying for the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.
Russell continued in qualifying where he left off on Saturday in the Sprint Race, dominating the opening two sessions and looking set to take pole position.
But the championship leader came into the pits at the end of Q2 complaining of a broken front wing, which was quickly replaced.
However, events took a dramatic turn in Q3, when his W17 stopped at the end of Turn 2, before he got underway, although stuck in first gear.
Frantic work from the Mercedes mechanics in the garage fixed the issue, and Russell secured a front-row start in the dying seconds of Q3, teammate Kimi Antonelli taking pole position.
After the session, Russell walked through the reliability scares that threatened to relegate the him to a lowly 10th place grid spot.
“Firstly, congrats to Kimi, but I think, yeah, he did a really great job,” he said in the post-qualifying press conference.
“On our side it was just a crazy session. From the end of Q2, the front wing broke and the team weren’t sure if it had broken or not.
” I was pretty convinced it had and there was a bit of stress around that and changing the front wing. Then as soon as I went out on the track, I could tell something wasn’t right, stopping on the track, trying to restart the car.
“It didn’t restart, then it started later, got back in, couldn’t shift gears, and then obviously we just made it on track with seconds to spare. So really, really happy to be sat here right now because I could easily have been down in P10 without a time on the board.”
George Russell “really glad” to be starting on front row
Due to the scare, Russell had just one lap to deliver, meaning lap preparation was critical, a factor he was all too aware of.
“It was as good as I could have achieved, but, you know, I had no battery starting my lap and my tyres were cold,” he said of his lap.
” But as I said, I’m very grateful to be sat here right now. It was more a case of getting a time on the board. I knew Kimi’s been really strong and things were far from optimised my side, so it was more a case of get the car across the line and make sure I’m starting in a sensible position.
“P2 was much better than I expected. As I said, when I started the lap with no battery and no tyre temperature, I was expecting to be further down the order. So, as I said, just really glad to be here.”
Russell is hoping to take advantage of the fast, frenetic starts of current F1, hoping it can put him into a position to win on Sunday.
“I hope so for us, to be honest. But it has been great opening few laps for the last two races.
“We know Ferrari are quick off the line and we’ve got them in P3 and P4, which is the first time of the season, and Lewis was obviously great at the beginning of the race this morning, so I am sure it’s not going to be straightforward.”
Russell is aware that his P2 on the grid on Sunday is a result of both sensational luck and slick work from Mercedes. Driver and team did not panic, instead all focused on their tasks: Mercedes fixing the car, while Russell focused on how to nail his only Q3 lap.
This was Russell’s first real test of pressure in what is looking like a championship run, and he passed with flying colours.
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