George Russell was unlucky during Friday’s qualifying in Shanghai, which preceded Saturday’s sprint, circumstances prevented him from qualifying for the final session, but Lewis Hamilton, his Mercedes teammate, showed his ability in difficult weather conditions and left second see time. .
Lewis Hamilton (2nd): “The conditions were very difficult, everyone had no grip on the track, but I am very satisfied with the result. When I saw that the rain was coming, I was immediately inspired, because on a dry track we are not fast enough, but in the rain we have more chances. Then it got even more fun! In the sprint everything will depend on the weather conditions. If they are like today, we will have the opportunity to compete for higher positions. If it is dry, Ferrari and Red Bull will of course be ahead of us, but perhaps we can keep other rivals at bay.”
George Russel (11th): “It was not easy at all to drive the last lap of the second part of qualifying, although we tried to get onto the track as early as possible. But a line of twelve cars formed in front of us at the pit lane exit, and obviously I got stuck behind them, causing the tire temperature to drop. It’s a shame this happened, but let’s hope we can recoup this during the sprint. I was just a little short of reaching the last session, and then the rain got heavier, but we will still have chances in tomorrow’s race and in tomorrow’s qualifying.
The grip on this track was lower than we expected. I think the lap times are 3-4 seconds lower than expected, but there are no youth series races here this weekend, which would contribute to the appearance of a layer of used rubber on the track. That’s why the cars slide a lot, even though we worked on hard tires during practice and only did a few laps on Medium tires in the first two qualifying sessions, so it’s still difficult to judge how the tires work here.
But in the evening we will work some more, perhaps adjust the settings, and then we will see what we can achieve tomorrow.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
