‘First Time in a While I Felt Confident’: George Russell Rues Missed Pole as Mercedes ‘Misjudgment’ Costs Him in Brazil 

George Russell was visibly unhappy after missing out on pole position for the Brazilian Grand Prix on Saturday, as he stated that he felt it was a missed opportunity on his side. The driver was asked to back out of his one representative lap in Q3, following which the rain intensified in Sao Paulo, allowing no drivers to improve their times.

“That was definitely the pole lap. Misjudgment on our side, I need to understand what happened. The rain was coming and we should have just finished the lap,” Russell said in the post-qualifying interview.

“I felt good out there. It’s the first time in a while I felt confident in the car. I felt more confident in the wet than I do in the dry, so I don’t really understand why that was,” he added.

Russell hence missed out on pole position to McLaren’s Lando Norris, who set a 1:27.470 lap to take the best possible starting spot. The Mercedes driver, who had traffic in his way during the lap in the form of Alex Albon’s Williams, was over two-tenths of a second slower in the end.

Qualifying essentially ended with seven minutes still to go in the session as every driver stepped out of their cars.

George Russell Will Take a Five-place Grid Drop For the Brazilian GP

But all this missed opportunity means for Russell is that he will be starting the Brazilian GP from P7 rather than potentially P6. This is because the Briton has a five-place grid penalty coming his way for Sunday’s race as Mercedes has fitted a sixth internal combustion engine in the back of his car this weekend.

Russell had explained at the beginning of the race weekend that the team had already picked Brazil as the place to take this penalty by fitting a new ICE in the back of his car. The 29-year-old also had to take a 10-place grid drop at the Singapore GP in October due to an ICE change.

Since this is his sixth ICE and now two over the allowed limit of four in a season, Russell only received a five-place drop. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc were all given a 10-place drop as they have taken only their fifth ICE in Brazil, with the two former also taking other components and starting at the back of the grid as a result.

Russell’s teammate, the newly crowned world champion Kimi Antonelli, will inherit P2 and start on the front row alongside Norris. Meanwhile, Leclerc, who qualified in fourth, will also move down 10 places, meaning Liam Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg will make up the second row on Sunday.

George Russell Lashed Out at Race Engineer at the End of Brazilian GP Qualifying

After he realized that he would not improve his lap time in Q3 as the rain came in, Russell lashed out at his race engineer Marcus Dudley. The eight-time race winner also said that he was not satisfied with finishing the session in second when he could have been first.

“Mate, you f****** told me to back off! What the hell?” Russell exclaimed.

“I don’t want to be P2, I want to be P1,” he added after being told his eventual position by Toto Wolff.

After the session, Mercedes F1 deputy team principal Bradley Lord explained that Mercedes asked Russell to back off as he was too close to Alex Albon going into the final sector. He also added that the team believed there was enough time for another lap before the rain hit the circuit, which turned out not to be the case.

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