George Russell had a lonely sprint race this Saturday (9) in Austria, not being threatened, but also not being able to get close to the front pack
Fourth place in Saturday's sprint race in Austria left a bittersweet taste in George Russell's mouth. After crashing during Q3 of qualifying, the Englishman saw Mercedes racing against time to get the car ready and said that the points are like a reward for all the effort, but admitted that the loss of performance during the 23 laps of the race was more than expected.
Russell explained that he had a loss of almost 0s5 a lap compared to the pace of the Ferraris, which came in ahead of the Englishman. "First, thanks to everyone in the pits getting the car ready in time. It was a great team effort, so it was good to add points. As for the performance, the difference was bigger than we expected."
"We were 13 seconds behind after 23 laps, that's almost 0s5 a lap. We'll have to work through the night to understand why we lost pace," the driver added.
For Sunday's race, Russell will start in fourth position - the same as he started today, since Sergio Perez's penalty made Lewis Hamilton's teammate gain a place. He also drew attention to tire wear at the Red Bull Ring.
"Small things can make the difference - it wasn't easy to manage the tires, and the different downforce approaches will be important tomorrow. But we have no doubt that we have work to do," he finished.