Russell rues “too many mistakes” after squandering Q3 chance in Turkey F1

Russell looked on course to progress into Q3 until he suffered a snap of oversteer at the final corner, taking him off the track and ruining his final lap in the process.

The British driver has been in fine form since the summer break, particularly in changeable conditions, qualifying on the front row in Belgium and securing third on the grid last time out in Russia.

“The lap was incredible to be honest, I was a second up on my previous lap,” Russell said. “It would have probably been just inside the top five, half a second, six tenths inside of Q3 and just lost it. I was really trying to push the boundaries in that moment and just too many mistakes from my side.”

Russell believes without his error, he would have qualified inside the top seven in Turkey.

“It is human error,” Russell added. “At the end of the day I am the one inside of the car and just pushed it too hard. The conditions aren’t easy for sure but it was the same for everybody. I expect more from myself in these kind of conditions. I usually relish and take the opportunity.

“We definitely didn’t have the car this weekend to be inside the top 10, yet in this qualifying session with the difficult conditions I think we could have easily been top seven on the grid for tomorrow. I’m pretty disappointed.”

The Mercedes-bound driver is unsure whether Sunday’s race will be a one or two-stop strategy given the difficulties teams faced in Friday practice with tyre degradation.

“Not really sure, we’ll have to be dynamic to the situation,” he explained “Nobody knows whether it will be a one-stop, two-stop, or if the soft or hard tyres will hold on. It will be a tricky race.”