Russell’s worrying Merc admission: “Right now we wouldn’t know what to change”

Russell was knocked out in Q2 during the first qualifying session of the weekend, losing out to teammate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.004s.

Hamilton could only qualify fifth, a whopping 0.9s down on Charles Leclerc. 

Mercedes introduced a number of small upgrades for Baku, with their major update expected to arrive in time for Imola.

Reflecting on Friday’s qualifying session, Russell said: “We are not fast enough this weekend, obviously. I would have loved to have been in Q3. I gave it everything. 

“The lap was strong. I made a mistake in my last one - it might have crept me into Q3. It’s a funny sport this. From qualifying on the front row last week to both of us, well myself, being out in Q2 then Lewis just getting in with P10.

“We have another chance tomorrow but it’s not ideal. I wasn’t feeling great in practice, I would have loved to do a few more laps. We sat in the garage for quite a long time doing a few bits and bobs.

“It’s easy in hindsight to say ‘could have, should have, would have’. It’s a learning for this sprint race. Last sprint race, we hit the ground running. This one has been the opposite. That’s the way it goes with these events.

“Right now we wouldn’t know what to change, to find the pace we need around this track. It is unique, an outlier.”

Despite a poor qualifying, Russell is confident of recovering in Sunday’s main grand prix.

“Compared to the first three races, of all the tracks to have a bad qualifying?” Russell added. 

“This is one to do it. I see no reason why we can’t fight back on Sunday.”