It’s the final sprint race of the season at the Qatar GP — and for Mercedes’ George Russell the weekend at the Losail International Circuit has been off to a great start.
Russell had placed P8 during FP1, and he completed the front row, finishing P2 during Sprint Qualifying. The Briton clocked a time of 1:21.075. He joined his fellow 2019 rookie, polesitter Lando Norris, who was only 0.063s faster.
Russell finished the Sprint Race on the podium in P3. This was due to the first lap overtake by Norris’ teammate, Oscar Piastri. However, despite finishing on the podium, Russell recounts the drive as “very frustrating”.
McLaren’s teamwork holds back Russell in F1 Qatar GP Sprint
The 26-year-old name dropped Lando Norris as the reason for his frustration. Norris, who stayed in P1 for the majority of the Sprint Race, had aided Piastri with DRS for almost every lap.
Despite overtaking Russell in the first lap, Piastri found himself under pressure from the Mercedes’ driver who managed to stay within DRS as he looked quicker than the second McLaren.
In order to aid his teammate and protect their chances of a 1-2 finish, Norris had deliberately slowed down to give the Australian DRS. This made Russell’s job a lot more difficult, and it allowed McLaren to extend their lead ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors’ championship to 30 points.
“I mean it was very close going into Turn 1 on a couple of occasions. It was obviously so frustrating every lap, Lando backing up giving Oscar the DRS.
“Obviously I understand why he did that but when you’re out here, you’re fighting, you want to give it everything and you want to put a race on for the fans. It was just pretty infuriating but nevertheless, it was P3 this afternoon.”
Tyre troubles
Despite the disappointing Sprint Race, Russell now has his eyes set on pole position in qualifying later in the day for the Qatar GP.
It won’t be easy, especially considering how unforgiving the track is on the tyres. The struggle with tyre degradation will be a common problem for the majority of the drivers on this track.
The Mercedes’ driver admitted that his own set was “dropping a little bit” during his last few laps.
He is still positive that his Mercedes would be able to fight Norris’ McLaren in terms of pace later during qualifying.
“They were definitely dropping a little bit to be honest, I struggled towards the end but I think Lando had some good pace.
“Oscar was struggling a little bit.So it would have been good to be able to go head-to-head with Lando and see what the true pace would have been as I think he had quite a lot in the pocket [and] just given Oscar the DRS.”
