Fifth place in Azerbaijan, in Russell's view, was good, but still far short of what is expected from a limp Mercedes and a W13 with no downforce
George Russell had mixed feelings in qualifying after his fifth place on Saturday (11) in Azerbaijan. Although his lap of 1min42s712 was excellent with a faltering W13, the gap to pole-position Charles Leclerc was still 1s353.
At the end of the session, the British Mercedes driver gave an overview of how his performance went. "The car looked good, but obviously it's shocking to cross the finish line and be a second and a bit behind pole."
George avoided voicing harsher criticism of the team, however, he knows that Mercedes is a long way behind the season leaders, especially on a high track like Baku. "The slowest cars are closer to us than we are to Red Bull and Ferrari, meaning that unless there is a safety-car or other problems ahead, that's the only way we can move forward. We have some fast cars behind us, like Alpine and Gasly."
About a possible favoring of Lewis Hamilton in Q3, Russell was uncomfortable with the questioning and gave his version of the fact. "I've been asked that a few times, but no, I aborted my lap, and because I was a little further ahead, Lewis took advantage of the vacuum on that lap," he said.
Regarding the performance of the W13, Russell said that the team is looking for more power and working hard to bring performance to the car, but it is difficult. "This weekend brought our weaknesses to the fore. We are striving for more, but we don't have the downforce we need. We know there is a lot to get out of the car, but fundamentally we can't extract it," he added.
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