Friday’s Sprint Qualifying was one to forget for the Mercedes team. Kimi Antonelli failed to make SQ2 following a spin into the gravel, which compromised his car going into his 2nd run. George Russell didn’t fare much better, given that he didn’t make SQ3, qualifying 13th.
The British driver was unlucky enough to run over an abundance of gravel kicked up by his teammate’s spin in SQ1. This likely also caused damage to Russell’s car and was present in his SQ2 time.
George Russell reacts to missing out on SQ3
After the session, George got in front of the F1 media to comment on his SQ2 exit:
“We had the pace today, I ran over the gravel when Kimi went off and then after that it felt terrible so we need to see if there’s some damage.”
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Russell was in P5 at the end of SQ1 and had good momentum to improve in the later stages of Sprint Qualifying, but sadly, it would not be. The car lost a lot of pace in the first two sectors of the track, and Russell simply couldn’t make up the time.
Last year, Mercedes scored a 1-2 in the Belgian Grand Prix race after leading the race for most of it. Russell would later be disqualified from the 2024 race, but the pace spoke for itself that day.
Looking ahead on the Grand Prix
After Sprint Qualifying, cars are put in Parc Fèrme, meaning that you’re not allowed to make changes to the setup. If Russell’s floor is damaged and can’t be repaired within the bounds of Parc Fèrme, the rest of the weekend could be a drama for Russell. Russell reflected on the pace in the car from Friday as he looks ahead to main event:
“The pace was good in practice, it was good in SQ1, and then once I went through the gravel, it didn’t feel good. Not ideal.”
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With that terrible feeling in the car, we saw how Russell fared in the Sprint race, salvaging his car to P12. The Brit has been racing with the top 5 for most of the season so far, but it’s looking like he might have to deal with this throughout the rest of the weekend.
The Qualifying for the main race today will be a deciding factor on how Mercedes fares for the final part of the weekend. With terrible results in the Sprint, they have a lot of ground to cover up for the ultimate event of the weekend.
