Russell confesses to qualifying mistake as Mercedes 'underperform'

Ewan Gale
Saturday 2 July 2022 23:30

George Russell believes Mercedes "underperformed" in British Grand Prix qualifying and revealed to a mistake on his final lap that cost him a top-five spot on the grid.

The Briton qualified only eighth for his home race in treacherous conditions as rain intermittently fell around the Silverstone circuit.

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton will line up fifth behind the Ferrari and Red Bull pairings despite showing a promising improvement during the dry final practice session and both Q1 and Q2.

Addressing his session, Russell said: "I wouldn't say [it is] a missed opportunity but we definitely underperformed compared to where the car deserved to be.

"I felt good in Q1 and progressively got worse and I just sort of lost confidence.

"That last lap, I made a mistake. We had the speed to be P5, P4, so that was a bit frustrating. But let's see tomorrow.

"We have definitely made progress in the dry at least, but we know qualifying is a weakness for us at the moment."

On the mistake he made during his final flying lap, Russell explained: "Turn three, I probably lost four or five-tenths.

"But still, the lap was pretty average and losing four-tenths to start the lap is not ideal."

Mercedes has "definitely closed the gap"

Mercedes has introduced a raft of upgrades this weekend in order to try and take the fight to Red Bull and Ferrari.

The Silver Arrows looked much more stable through high-speed corners in final practice whilst the race pace on show on Friday was fast enough to rival Ferrari.

"We definitely have a faster race car than we do a qualifying car," said Russell, who has McLaren's Lando Norris and Alpine's Fernando Alonso in between himself and Hamilton.

"We have definitely closed the gap as well so it would have been really interesting to have seen where we could have ended up had it been dry.

"I just hope I can get past Alonso and Lando as soon as possible to try and see the true picture because we have got half a chance against the guys in front."

Additional reporting by Ian Parkes