George Russell is happy with the car’s speed in Qatar…
Question: In the last qualifying you were only 55 thousandths of a second behind the pole position. Can you imagine where you lost this time?
George Russell: No, not really. I rode a very good first fast lap in the final, I was very happy and hoped to gain a few more tenths, but on the last lap I couldn’t go any faster.
Because of the incident with Max I did two gravel corners before the start of the lap, so it didn’t start that well, it probably cost me that 55 thousandth.
It’s great that we are so competitive now. I started from the front row four times, which is really nice considering how far behind we were three or four races ago. And the race pace was also high in the sprint. So Max did an excellent job. Red Bull seems to have managed to turn the situation around from Friday, but we will see what the race brings.
Q: Now you and Mercedes are performing very consistently. What is this connected to?
George Russell: In the last stages the circuits suited our car well. We know it’s fast if on a slippery track we manage to lower the suspension height as much as possible and make it stiff.
In Brazil we didn’t have enough speed. We were slow in the sprint, but on Sunday morning qualifying took place in the rain, which somewhat balanced the balance of power. I think we did better than we expected in Brazil, but we were really competitive in the last two races. The machine actually works well.
Question: You were fast on the sprint distance on Saturday. Does this give reason for optimism ahead of the race?
George Russell: The race should be interesting! This weekend, starting from the inside of the track did not provide an advantage in any series we saw. Let’s see how everything turns out.
I think we will have a very close fight with the participation of riders from four teams. In the sprint the Ferrari cars were as fast as me and Lando. I hope the race will be good, but maybe we will see the “DRS train” again, I don’t know.
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.
