Russell hits out at “ridiculous” end to F1 qualifying at Monza

A frustrated George Russell has warned that there will be crashes in Formula 1 qualifying if things don't change after drivers got in each other’s way once again at the Italian Grand Prix.

In similar circumstances to the end of Q3 at Monza last year, cars were keen to bunch up in a bid to benefit from the slipstream effect and the added lap time that brings.

Russell was one of many drivers who did not improve on his final timed lap due to cars bunching up at the final corner and some drivers overtaking each other down into Turn 1 as they started their laps.

Reflecting on the events of qualifying, Russell felt without the antics he had a chance of progressing into Q2 once again.

“It’s ridiculous. I don’t know what’s going on to be honest, why everybody sends their cars all at the exact same time, it’s inevitable what’s going to happen,” Russell said.

“There is going to be a crash. People are trying to overtake, defend, people are going slow ahead to try and mess it up for everybody behind.

“It was just ridiculous. [I’m] a bit frustrated because we need to be the ones capitalising on these stupid errors by everybody but we were just caught up in the middle. Q2 was definitely possible with everything that went on.”

Specifically for this weekend, the FIA introduced a minimum lap time to stop drivers from going too slowly.

Russell doubts this new rule has improved the situation but in fact, it made things worse, and he is unsure how it can be solved at future races should drivers be so reliant on slipstream in qualifying.

“It’s very circuit-specific because everyone is looking for that slipstream,” Russell added. “What they’ll do, I don’t really know.

“They put a minimum time we could drive on the out laps, but that probably made it worse as everyone was worried about exceeding that.

“You went into the last corner, it was like we had an Indy 500 restart on our hands. I don’t know, just frustrating.”

The FIA opted for no further action with regards to the Q1 incident between Esteban Ocon and Kimi Raikkonen, where the Finn was forced to back off after Ocon defended hard through the Curva Grande.