The “touch and go” moment George Russell feared had blown his pole chances

George Russell feared he had blown his chances of taking pole position at the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix after hitting the wall in qualifying.

After topping Q1, and ending up second to Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in Q2, Russell went on to pip Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to pole position with a brilliant last-gasp lap in Q3.

But it was a far from straightforward session for Russell, who needed a front wing change after a brush with the wall on his first run. The Briton admitted he was concerned his qualifying might have been over.

“It feels incredible to be back on pole,” Russell said. “We’ve been so quick all weekend and I just knew coming into that last Q3 lap, that’s going to be one that counts. It doesn’t matter what’s happened before then.

“I had a bit of a moment on my first run, we had to change the front wing, so there was a moment where I thought we weren’t going to make the flag. But I’m just so happy.”

He added: “Ultimately, you've got to put it on the table sometimes, and I felt confident in myself. I knew if I did a clean lap it would be enough to secure a front row.

“So to get pole position, it's incredible. We need to convert that into a win now.”

Russell conceded he still has no answer for why Mercedes have been so competitive all weekend long in Las Vegas.

“I'd love to tell you, to be honest, it's been a real surprise for all of us,” he said. “And it's something we need to really review because this is an outlier circuit.

“We haven't done anything out of the ordinary specifically for Vegas, but for whatever reason, the conditions, the layout, is playing in our favour. And I'm kind of scratching my head as to why.

“We will ride with it for the time being but as I said, if you're quick in Vegas, it's a bit of a one-off circuit. So we need to understand it. And of course, one of our other poles was in Canada as well, which is very cold, street circuit-esque conditions too, so there's a small trend.”