Mercedes
Russell was quick on the hards in practice, but fell back on the softs after failing to nail a flying run. As such, his form was a little unknown going into Sprint Qualifying. But Russell looked strong throughout, even though Mercedes seemed to need a double warm-up lap on the medium tyres. He wound up grabbing second on the grid, between the two McLaren cars and inserting himself right into the midst of the Championship fight. Antonelli is a few places back, as he seemed to need a little longer to get to grips with the circuit.
George Russell, 2nd, 1:20.087
“I am very happy with how today went. I’ve been enjoying these past few qualifying sessions a lot, pushing the car to its limit and having it respond in the way that I want it to. That has enabled us to make the most out of the package we have and bag some strong results. Today was no different. P2 is a great result and to split the McLarens isn’t something we thought we would do ahead of the session.
“It’s going to be difficult to overtake in tomorrow’s Sprint so the race could potentially be decided coming out of the first corner. Starting on the front-row obviously helps and we will be aiming to score good points, even if we can’t fight for the win. The track here is really enjoyable, with a helpful high grip surface, so I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”
Kimi Antonelli, 7th, 1:20.532
“Qualifying P7 for tomorrow’s Sprint isn’t where we want to be starting. It is a tricky track and I made a few mistakes, particularly in SQ2 where I was fortunate to progress to SQ3 with the deleted lap time for Hadjar. Those moments cost me a bit of confidence and set me back a little bit for SQ3. Without that, there was definitely more pace to be found, and we could have been starting further forward in the field.
“It is a high grip circuit and the car balance felt good throughout practice and Sprint Qualifying. It was a shame not to maximise the potential of the car. Tomorrow is a new day though; we will analyse all the data overnight and have a look at my driving as well to understand how to improve and make the most out of the car. There is still a good chance of scoring decent points in the Sprint before the all-important qualifying session for Sunday’s race later in the evening.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“It’s been a bit of a challenge getting the car into a decent window on the various tyre compounds today. We had solid pace on the Hard tyre at the start of FP1 and the long run looked competitive, but when we jumped to the Soft compound for some low fuel work, the grip wasn’t there, and we finished the session in P10 and P14. With so little data from just one practice session, it’s always a tricky decision whether to focus on the setup or the tyres. We decided to change both which is a bit of a risk on a Sprint weekend, although it did seem that our single lap pace had improved. George was relatively happy with the car by SQ3.
“We can’t seem to match McLaren in the high speed but for the rest of the lap we are competitive. Kimi felt that the car was good but underestimated the grip and was left wishing he’d pushed a bit harder. It wouldn’t have taken much for him to make it onto the second row but it’s encouraging for qualifying tomorrow evening if there is a bit more to come. The Sprint tomorrow will hopefully deliver useful learning and it’s a good opportunity to add a few more points.”
