Photo Credit: Mercedes AMG F1
A great Saturday for George Russell in Marina Bay that started out with a P2 in FP3 ahead of Lando Norris and ended with the Brit securing second place on the grid.
A second place that could almost have been first, as he came just 0.072s shy of Carlos Sainz’s best attempt, 1m 30.984s that was worth the pole position under the Singapore lights.
“It was definitely a challenging session,” commented Russell after quali.
“When you’re sat in that car, it’s like you’re sat in the sauna just sweating it out, but you’ve got to keep your composure, keep your cool.”
Certainly not the easiest task in what is known to be the most physically demanding track of the season, which despite being at night welcomed cars with a temperature of 30 degrees.
Nonetheless, it’s been quite a good weekend for Russell who is looking forward to the race, confident Mercedes has a good shot with a diversified tyre strategy. It would be the first podium finish for the team since Lewis HAmilton’s P3 in Silverstone back in July.
“But no, really, really happy with this weekend as a whole, felt really confident in the car and the team did a great job with the strategy. We were on an offset strategy compared to everybody else,” he explained.
“So, we’ve got an extra set of medium tyres which nobody around us has, so to get to Q3 and to be on the front row with a strategic advantage tomorrow is an exciting place to be.”
A slow city circuit in which overtakes are rather complicated, but that comes with a twist this season: the new layout sees Turn 16 to 19 become a 397.9m long straight.
But does Russell believe that would make it possible for his W14 to take a step ahead and take P1 from Carlos Sainz?
“I mean, the track’s different this year,” he said.
But the real chance, he believes, comes from that extra set of medium tyres laying in Mercedes’ garage.
“The tyre degradation on Friday looked pretty bad, so I think it’s going to be very close between a one and a two-stop. With our mediums, we can put Ferrari in a difficult position and try and force them into an error, and get the upper hand, so that’s what we’re looking for.”
