George Russell found grip in short supply during Formula 1 qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix and elected to try something different for his final run in Q3: a final run on the mediums.
The decision offered some reward as Russell found a tenth on his soft-tyre opener in qualifying’s final stage, although it was only enough for the Mercedes driver to finish the session in seventh.
Russell had been heard over the radio stating his dissatisfaction with the level of grip through Q2 and Q3, ultimately feeling that he had “nothing on this tyre” and this prompted a change of plan for his concluding run of the session.
In context of the session, where Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were knocked out in Q1 and Q2 respectively, Russell felt relieved to have made it into Q3 despite his overall struggles with grip, but suggested that the switch to mediums hadn’t been completely successful.
He suggested that the reduced track grip had contributed to the mixed-up order seen in qualifying, particularly following the overnight rain.
“I don’t think I’d have done any better on the soft either – I wanted to try something different. It was just a very strange session altogether, probably the strangest one of the year where every single lap felt bad,” he said.
“The tyres felt poor every single lap. Very strange. Part of me feels that it was almost damage limitation when I look at where Max ended up and where Lewis ended up.
George Russell, Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
“I think it’s tyre and surface related, I don’t know why. It obviously rained a lot last night, the track was maybe a little bit greasy. But everybody just seemed to be struggling, I think.
“There were obviously maybe a handful of drivers who were doing a great job consistently but then a lot of drivers struggling mentally. I don’t have an answer for it, but I think it’s a bit of a one-off.”
His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, by comparison, enjoyed a much more fruitful qualifying session and plonked his Mercedes next to Lando Norris on tomorrow’s front row. Antonelli had persisted with the soft tyres for his final run, but revealed that he had discussed whether to try mediums with his team.
The Italian explained that the delta between the two compounds was small and this was of some temptation, but ultimately felt that his soft tyre performance was strong enough to ensure he could keep a fresh set of mediums back for Sunday’s race.
“We definitely thought about putting on the medium in qualifying because even yesterday, the medium felt basically the same as the soft,” Antonelli explained. “The jump from medium to soft was very little. Also today in the sprint, the medium felt better than the soft.
“Even in the first few laps, the grip just felt better. The tyre felt more robust, especially throughout the whole lap. So definitely we had a thought about it because we thought that there was not much of a gap.
“But I thought as well that because I felt good on the soft, I thought it would be better to keep it for tomorrow. Tomorrow, obviously, we have the new tyres, so that’s good, especially for the start. So I think that was the right choice at the end.”
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