George Russell slates "ridiculous" Q1 that resembled "Indy 500 re-start"

Italian Grand Prix

Russell slates "ridiculous" Q1 that resembled "Indy 500 re-start"

Russell was stuck in the middle of 17-car train as drivers fought for position

Ewan Gale

Saturday 5 September 2020 19:27 Updated: 19:52

Williams driver George Russell was left frustrated after his team were unable to capitalise on "stupid errors by everybody" in a "ridiculous" Italian Grand Prix qualifying session.

Russell, who could only qualify 19th at Monza, was denied the opportunity to improve his position as 17 drivers battled to find a slipstream at the end of their out laps which created chaos in Q1.

The Briton, who had been on a stellar run of Q2 appearances, bemoaned the failure to take advantage of the "absolutely ridiculous" on-track squabbling.

"I don't know what's going on, to be honest," said Russell.

"Why everybody just sends their cars all at the exact same time, it is inevitable what is going to happen. There is going to be a crash.

Article continues under video

"People are trying to overtake, defend. People are going slowly ahead to try and mess it up for everybody behind. It was just ridiculous.

"A bit frustrated because we need to be the ones capitalising from these stupid errors by everybody. We were just caught up in the middle and Q2 was definitely possible with everything that went on.

"It is very circuit-specific because everybody is looking for that slipstream. What they do, I don't really know.

"They put a minimum time we could drive on the out laps but that probably made it worse as everybody was worried about exceeding that and were trying to overtake.

"You went into the last corner and it was like we have got an Indy 500 restart on our hands. I don't know, just frustrating."

Russell, who had claimed the ban on 'party' modes would likely give his team a big performance boost on race day, still believes he can make up ground despite starting on the back row of the grid.

"We have got cars around us who we are competitive with," he explained.

"Giovinazzi, the Haas, even Sebastian [Vettel]. We are not a million miles away on high fuel. We can have a race tomorrow and see what we can do."

Before you go...

"Surprised" Perez confident of ending two-year podium drought

New lap-time rule "made things worse" in shambolic qualifying - Renault