George Russell cut an upbeat figure after qualifying third ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.
After securing fourth in Friday’s Sprint qualifying event, Russell went one better on Saturday. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri had initially gone third fastest, but his lap time was deleted for a track limits transgression at Turn 6 towards the end of the session, promoting Russell to P3.
In Austria, Mercedes made the top three for the third Saturday qualifying in a row. Russell admitted to being pleased with the progress the team has made to close the gap to the frontrunners over the past few rounds.
“Absolutely, the car’s feeling really great at the moment,” Russell said.
He acknowledged that the McLaren duo still seem out of reach, but admitted that he anticipates a battle with Ferrari in the race.
“Obviously, the team has worked so hard bringing these upgrades, and it feels like we’ve got a real fight on our hands, especially with Ferrari. I think we’re still a little bit behind McLaren, and, you know, Max and Red Bull were flying today, but it’s definitely going in the right direction for us.”
Russell already engaged Sainz in the Sprint race earlier on Saturday, ultimately finishing ahead of the Ferrari driver.
“We definitely changed a few things [between the Sprint and qualifying],” he continued. “We changed the wing level, which helped a little bit. I think that helped with tyre deg for tomorrow, so happy to be in P3, because I think we compromised qualifying a little bit to help the race tomorrow. The fact is McLaren still have that edge on us. But as I said, you know, three races in a row for us that were in the top three with Lewis and I—that feels really great.”
Russell referred back to Verstappen and Norris’ tussle in the Sprint, jokingly suggesting he could capitalise if a similar situation were to play out in the race: “I mean, these two were pretty dicey in the sprint race, so I think I’ll, you know, sit back, watch them do their thing, and hopefully just sneak through on the inside.
“Realistically, they’ve got the pace on us. Our race is probably going to be behind us, unfortunately, and it’s important that we don’t compromise our race too much battling with these guys. But, you know, let’s see.”
“Yeah, a good session,” he added in the press conference afterwards. “Similar to Lando, I thought the gap to Max was bigger than we expected. We made a few changes with the car, which I think will help us tomorrow.”
Russell reflected on his Q3 session in more detail, particularly his final attempt, which, according to the driver, could have been better: “Then that last lap in Q3 was all a bit messy, I had to let quite a few people by on my out lap and then during the lap I could just see dust everywhere and gravel on the track. That’s pretty frustrating as a driver when you go through a corner and just see gravel everywhere—so there’s a bit more in it, but really pleased to end up P3.
“Hopefully we can fight for the podium tomorrow. I think Lando and Oscar seem a little bit quicker than us, obviously Max is down the road at the moment, but I’m confident Lewis and I can probably beat the Ferraris tomorrow and hopefully hold up Oscar’s progress. It’s a long race, high degradation…anything can happen.
“Last week I lost a lot of time battling with Lando and probably focused too much on the guys ahead of me and ultimately that cost me the position to Lewis and almost to Charles as well.”
