George Russell is 6 tenths off Antonelli: Why he’s still keeping his cool

George Russell got off to a good start to the Spielberg weekend. The Mercedes star was just four hundredths of a second slower than his team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the first practice session. In the end, however, he was 6 tenths off the day’s fastest time, set by his team-mate and World Championship rival. What had happened?

“There was a mistake, so that should be fine,” the veteran shrugged. He also emphasised: “It was just one lap; there’s no cause for concern. Things went quite well for me in the first practice session, and the race pace looked quite good in the second session too.” However, he also admitted: “It was also the case that every other driver seemed to be having problems. Every time I looked at the screen, a different driver was in the pits. Lando Norris didn’t get out on track until the very end, and I reckon Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen weren’t exactly worry-free either. That probably made our performance look a bit better.”

Strong competition from Woking

It’s not his own team-mate who’s causing him concern, but a completely different rival, the Briton explained: “In the second practice session, McLaren were very quick right from the start. The McLaren lads were flying, and things didn’t go entirely smoothly for me. Their race pace looked good, and their speed over a flying lap wasn’t bad either. They’re certainly a real threat.”

“Because when it’s hot, they’re usually on form. We saw that last season, and in previous years too. Miami was the first really hot race, and they could have won it. And in Barcelona, too, Lando had a similar pace to us. They’re performing well here again, so there’s a clear trend emerging: they can apparently take a step forward in hot races, whilst we’re taking a small step backwards,” analysed the 28-year-old.