George Russell rued a lost pole position at the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix, after a car issue hindered his performance in qualifying.
With his teammate holding a pace advantage across qualifying, Russell had to dig deep during Q3 to prevent losing too much ground to the young Italian.
Finding three-tenths of a second on his first Q3 lap, the Briton tried in vain to stop Antonelli from storming to a second consecutive pole position.
A car issue befell Russell’s W17 in Q1, which the Briton and Mercedes were powerless to resolve, leaving the Briton fighting a losing battle.
Russell detailed the problem in the post-qualifying press conference, revealing remedial work undertaken between Q1 and Q2 to temper the issue.
“It was really odd, to be honest,” Russell said of his session.
“We made a set-up adjustment just going into qualifying and the car just did not feel the same as it has been the whole weekend. Y
“You saw my first laps in Q1, I was down in P7, P8, and we had to make a massive adjustment during qualifying with the front wing to adapt.
“The team have already had a look. We don’t know whether something incorrect was done or what happened, but I’m kind of glad again to be in this position because after Q1, I was like, ‘I’m not sure where we’ll end up”.
George Russell outlines low race expectations
Russell then revealed the full scale of the problem with his W17, confirming he lacked confidence in the corners, before delivering a sobering verdict on his race prospects.
“We made a mechanical issue to the car on the rear end and it was just mainly through the Esses,” he said. “I couldn’t attack any of the corners.
“The rear was trying to step out on me throughout. I’m sure we’ll try and see what happened. There’s not really anything we can do now, but as I said, it’s a good place to start for tomorrow and it’s going to be a long race.
“Yeah, it’s not ideal. I think, as I said, I’ve felt really comfortable with the car this whole weekend and in qualifying something didn’t quite feel right. So, let’s see tonight, maybe we’ll get some answers, maybe I can adjust my driving style to compensate, but definitely not the session we would have wanted. Two weeks in a row qualifying has been a bit tricky.
The Briton also revealed his concern at the sudden decrease in the advantage Mercedes holds over its rivals, citing a resurgent McLaren as a threat alongside Ferrari.
“Yeah, to be honest, qualifying was very close between the Ferraris and McLaren throughout, so that was probably a bit of a surprise to us. We both had a very strong FP3 session, we thought we had a bit of a margin to the competitors.
“Obviously, we’re still P1 and P2, so that’s great, but clearly the others are closing in.”
Securing second on the grid was very much a damage limitation exercise for Russell. Taking car problems into the race is far from ideal, and with McLaren and Ferrari closing in, he risks losing more ground on Sunday.
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