George Russell surprised at 'WEAK' Mercedes pace at Brazilian Grand Prix

George Russell talking to the press in Monaco — Photo: © LAT Images

Brazilian Grand Prix

Russell surprised at 'WEAK' Mercedes pace at Brazilian Grand Prix

The Brit could only manage fourth in the Interlagos sprint race

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Sunday 5 November 2023 14:27

George Russell has admitted his surprise at just how slow Mercedes were during Saturday's sprint race at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Having struggled for much of the weekend to battle for the front two rows of the grid in both Friday and Saturday qualifying, the team were expecting their strong race pace to put them into contention during the sprint race.

However, it was as much Russell could do to bring his car home in fourth, 25.879 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen, despite just 24 laps around the Interlagos track.

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Perhaps even more shockingly, Russell was over 20 seconds behind McLaren's Lando Norris in second, whilst team-mate Lewis Hamilton could only finish seventh having been overtaken by the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda.

George Russell has not been happy with his team's lack of performance at the Brazilian Grand Prix

George Russell finished the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race in fourth

Lewis Hamilton could only finish seventh for Mercedes during the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race

Russell reveals Mercedes inconsistencies

After being slammed with a two-place grid penalty for Sunday's main race which means he'll start down in eighth, it is looking unlikely that Russell will be able to repeat his heroics from last season's Brazilian GP, where he led home a Mercedes one-two.

"The pace we were missing was surprising," he told DAZN after the sprint race.

"The degradation was not worse than expected. The wheels are very difficult to understand. Sometimes the teams are fast and, suddenly, they become slow. We will see tomorrow.

"Today was the weakest pace we've had all season."