“Gutted to miss out on pole”- George Russell speaks on his first front row start

“Gutted to miss out on pole”- George Russell set to have his career-best start in any F1 Grand Prix he raced before, yet disappointed.

It was George Russell‘s day, as the British driver was set to have his career-best result in the qualifying round as he embraced his first qualifying session with Mercedes.

Honestly, Russell did a fine job and managed to get P2, his first front-row start in any Grand Prix, and his results spoke volume from him as he was just +0.026 behind Bottas.

Speaking on it, Russell told to the SkySports that it was incredibly intense, and he managed to complete qualifying was a big thing as claimed by him, but still feel gutted to lose pole position by just a fine margin.

“It has been incredibly intense. So much to learn, getting used to the seat – everything. It felt so different and alien to begin with. It’s just a really different way of driving, to be honest. Unlearning what I learnt at Williams and learning how to drive this car fast.” he said.

“I tried a lot of things in FP3 and it didn’t go well at all so, to be honest, I’d have been happy to just get through to Q3!” he further said.

“Really pleased. We got it all together in the final lap. Obviously gutted to miss out on pole by 20 milliseconds but if you told me last week I’d be qualifying P2 on the grid I wouldn’t have believed you.”

Pleased being close to Valtteri Bottas

Even though he feels bad about losing the pole position, he is still delighted that he managed to be close to his teammate for today, Bottas, as he every week observes how the latter pushes Hamilton.

“Valtteri has pushed Lewis a huge amount in qualifying over the years. I think statistically there has only been a tenth between them and we all know how great Lewis is.

“Just to be right behind Valtteri, coming in the last minute with two days of prep, I’m pleased. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow. I’ve got nobody in front of me [from the front row] which I’ve not experienced for a long, long time.

“It’s going to be tricky. Qualifying is what I’m feeling much more confident with as it’s everything you’ve got, tomorrow you need a bit more control and finesse and I haven’t had the experience of that yet. But I’ll give it my all.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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