George Russell on P2 in Mexico qualifying: “I still don’t understand Mercedes”

George Russell missed out on pole position in Mexico by 0.009 seconds; the Mercedes driver was pipped to the post by Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari, meaning he missed out on his 13th F1 pole by the narrowest of margins.

Of course, the 28-year-old Briton still has a chance of victory at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez: the Mexican Grand Prix was last won from second on the grid in 2017 and 2018 (both times by Max Verstappen).

George Russell seems relaxed after the thoroughly entertaining Mexican qualifying session, as this is his best qualifying performance since securing pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. The eight-time Grand Prix winner says: “I’m relieved, because I’ve had a few difficult weekends.”

“I’m particularly pleased with this performance because I still don’t quite understand the upgraded Mercedes. And here in Mexico I was also struggling until Q3 came around and suddenly it all clicked.”

“The track temperature dropped as qualifying went on, which worked in my favour. I did a very quick warm-up lap; I suddenly felt a lot of confidence in the car – and then came a virtually flawless lap.”

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“Out of nowhere, I somehow found nearly half a second and only just missed out on pole. Heartfelt congratulations to Lewis.”

“I’ve always known that I can compete at the very front again; I just need to manage to deliver that performance more consistently. I’m finding that very difficult at the moment, but I’m glad to be on the front row.”