George Russell In The Mix At Monza?

Max Verstappen called his Q3 at Monza, which took place a few hours ago, “quite bad.” He was, lest it is forgotten, outperformed by his teammate Sergio Perez in the end; a rare day of quality and effort for the man in the other Red Bull as one calls it.

But here is what changed in the course of the last two qualifying runs, including the one at Monza and Zandvoort.

At the Dutch GP, which still is F1’s most recent Grand Prix, it was not Max Verstappen but Lando Norris who bagged the pole, winning the race by a margin of 22 seconds in the end.

However, this time around, in displacing Max Verstappen at Monza during qualifying as if the Red Bull was a snail in front of the Ostrich-like pace of McLaren, it appeared as though Norris added insult to injury to Verstappen’s woes in what could be a draining, if also emphatic, battle for supremacy until the end of the 2024 season.

Having said that, as an F1 driver would you not like to rest a little after the completion of a qualifying session?

Well, probably not if you are George Russell for the Briton from King’s Lynn truly drove like a king on a supremely competitive qualifying contest for himself and his Mercedes team.

At this time, if you are George Russell, who begins his 2024 Italian Grand Prix from third on the grid, then you’d worry less even for someone who is a true titan of the sport, the giant of an achiever in the other Mercedes: teammate Lewis Hamilton.

For Hammertime begins well outside the top five for this GP. This would arguably make things seem a bit better for the younger Mercedes driver.

George Russell would focus on the two massively quick cars out in the front.

This conforms to the two McLaren drivers.

But while Russell would love to be involved in an early scrap right at the start of the big race coming up at Monza, in an attempt to make, at the very least, one move on Piastri, he’d also realise that all’s not bad with no Ferrari driver managing to breach his Mercedes’ faultless pace as seen on Saturday.

The winner of the now famous 2024 Monaco Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc too, had no answers to Russell’s ballsy pace at Monza.

But then neither did last year’s Monza pole sitter Carlos Sainz, whose 1:20:294 in 2023 qualifying put him onto a different pedestal of pace and form last year.

Even then, both the Ferrari drivers are somehow miraculously inside the top five even as they admittedly struggled to turn in the car at most of Monza’s medium fast corners, Sainz, P5 this time around in quali, struggling even more than Charles.

But on his part, George Russell will also realise that a few things need a mend.

Mercedes are not even in the Top-3 Constructors’ rankings, which is perhaps not their greatest stat at this time in 2024. Their current deficit to third placed Ferrari is just under 100 points.

In that aspect, all hail, Mighty Max now for it’s the Dutchman’s brilliance particularly from the start that ensured that Red Bull stayed ahead of the curve even as McLaren are clawing their way back into the competition and how.

But, well, spare a thought.

Even the great Max Verstappen is no close to Russell at this time where the 2024 Monza-bound Italian GP is concerned.

For someone who all but won at Spa most recently and has come desperately close to challenging Piastri for second, which is what the Englishman’s aim is going to be the moment the five red lights go green, George Russell will be facing some nerves.

Adrenaline is certainly going to fuel George Russell’s race output on Sunday

Having said all of that, the big question post George Russell’s noted third in qualifying is this:

Will he manage to land himself on the podium here at Monza again having done so in the past in 2022? Remember back then it was a P3. Can the 2024 Italian GP culminate in something even better?

It’s all to play for here at the temple of speed, right George?