George Russell has revealed the cause behind his dramatic slump in performance during FP2 for this weekend’s Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix.
Russell endurRussell endured a challenging Friday in Belgium, severely lacking the pace of teammate and current championship leader Kimi Anotnelli.
The Briton finished eighth in FP1, 0.356s behind Antonelli, with both Mercedes not featuring at the top of the timesheets. Antonelli was classified a distant fifth, half a second away from Max Verstappen.
The gap between the two Mercedes drivers has become a recurring theme this season, with Russell having struggled to adapt to the characteristics of the 2026 car in a way his younger teammate has not. Antonelli arrived at Spa still leading the championship by 25 points, having lost a likely victory at Silverstone to a wheel shield failure that also cost him a podium finish and a late time penalty.
While Antonelli plugged the gap in FP2 to finish fastest, Russell’s gap to the frontrunners dramatically increased. FP2 itself was disrupted by two red flags, the first to clear gravel at Turn 15, while Oscar Piastri lost the opening 20 minutes of the session to a suspected hydraulic issue in the McLaren garage. Verstappen, who had topped FP1, slipped to third in the second session and was left frustrated by his RB22’s gearbox behaviour through the lap.
He ended FP2 a whopping 1.285s away from his teammate, compounding a difficult Friday, leaving him and his side of the Mercedes garage with work to do to bring themselves back into contention.
After FP2, Russell did not shy away from the challenges he faces to rescue his weekend, pinpointing the area that caused him issues.
“We haven’t had the smoothest Friday here in Spa,” Russell said.
“We overestimated the grip levels in FP1 and that meant our starting set-up wasn’t in the right place.
“We struggled with a difficult car balance and, whilst we were able to complete some learning, it wasn’t the ideal way to start our weekend.”
George Russell reveals work in progress
Russell then revealed the work in progress to claw back the time lost to Russell on Friday, highlighting one area that still needs significant focus.
“We therefore worked hard ahead of FP2 and made some changes which improved things,” he added.
“There is still more lap time we can find, particularly on the single lap, and we will look to do that overnight.
“Our long run was more competitive and that gives us encouragement heading into Saturday and Sunday.”
The overnight work undertaken by Russell and Mercedes produced a comeback, Russell closing the gap to just three tenths of a second.
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