George Russell complained that “some sort of steering issue” hampered his efforts after qualifying on the second row for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver was victorious on the iconic streets 12 months ago, and he topped final practice as well as both Q1 and Q2 this time around amid tricky wet conditions.
However, he was unable to replicate that in Q3, eventually setting the fourth fastest time.
“Q3 didn’t really come together for us, but I actually had some sort of steering issue on the last three laps,” said Russell afterwards. “It was like I’d lost power steering. I don’t think we’d have been on pole because I didn’t have a great feel of the car, but it’s kind of quite annoying when it happens.
“I was really struggling to turn around the corners. I don’t know what the issue was, but it just didn’t come together in Q3, when Q1 and Q2 had been pretty solid.”
Although the last seven Grands Prix have been won from pole position, Russell is confident of his chances to challenge polesitter Lando Norris for victory and break the cycle.
“P4 is obviously not the ideal place, but a lot has happened around this track,” he added. “It was a very difficult session, so obviously, it could have been much worse. But it’s definitely a strong place to fight.”
Qualifying proved to be difficult for Kimi Antonelli in the second Mercedes as he dropped out in Q1, qualifying 17th, with plenty of drivers struggling to get to grips with the slippery track after rain had fallen prior to the session beginning.
“The last lap, I locked up the front right,” Antonelli said. “I still need to understand the reason, because obviously, knowing it was the last lap, I took some margin on the braking just to avoid any bad surprises, but I still ended up locking up and losing the lap.
“It was a shame, because the lap was good enough to get through.”
.webp?ssl=1 "George Russell heads Mercedes 1-2 in opening practice session in Japan")
