George Russell “tried something very different” to secure F1 Chinese GP front-row
The Mercedes driver split the two McLarens in qualifying on Saturday
George Russell has revealed that he “tried something very different” at the end of qualifying to grab second place on the grid for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Russell was lying in fifth place after the opening runs in Q3, which seemed representative of where Mercedes stood in the pecking order at Shanghai.
However, just seconds after the chequered flag was flown, Russell managed to pull something special out of the bag, setting a rapid time of 1m30.723s on his final effort.
The lap secured him his first front-row start of the year, ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris, and just 0.082s behind polesitter Oscar Piastri.
The British driver said the final result caught him by surprise, as he too had found it difficult to get Pirelli's soft tyres to perform to his liking at the resurfaced Shanghai International Circuit.
“It was really, really challenging because all weekend it's been difficult for everybody to get on top of these tyres and knowing what the best strategy and the potential is to do if you go hard on your formation lap or you take it easy," he explained.
“I was just going all over the place and on the last lap I tried something very different, it worked. A really strong lap and P2 was a surprise. So really pleased with that one”
Russell revealed that he lowered his pace on his warm-up lap to prevent tyres from overheating, thus putting the entire package in the optimum position for his final flyer.
Sky F1 pundit Martin Brundle also noticed that the Mercedes driver upshifted in the middle of the last corner to give himself better acceleration on the long start/finish straight.
“I just came out of the pits and went dead slow around the warm-up lap ahead of my fast lap," said Russell. "So the first lap in Q3 I was full gas on that lap, and it seemed okay. I was P5. But 2.5-3 tenths behind Oscar.
“And then I found four tenths on my last lap. It really came together and it feels really rewarding when you do your best lap of the weekend when it matters and to be on the front row is a really great place to start for tomorrow.”
Russell said he did not expect any team to deny McLaren a front-row lockout given how strong the MCL39 has been at the start of the season.
“I think we have known realistically anywhere from P3 to P7 is where we are on a given day. I think it was only two tenths to P6, I want to say between ourselves, Ferrari, Kimi [Antonelli] and Max [Verstappen].
"Just been the McLarens [on the grid], I'm really proud of the job we have all done to secure that and we know how quick they are. Anything more than a P3 is a big result for any team at the moment.”
However, Russell is not getting carried away with his result in qualifying, as he fears McLaren will be out of reach in Sunday’s race.
Asked if he had the long-run pace to match McLaren, he said: “I think that will be a bit of a stretch. like Oscar said it was a really difficult race this morning.
“I do think they are still a step ahead of everybody. Ferrari was a real surprise in the sprint but tomorrow is a different game. We have got the hard tyre and nobody has run that yet, so I expect [something[ slightly different.”
