It was an uncharacteristic end to Qualifying for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team at the Red Bull Ring on Friday as both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton crashed out of Q3.
Russell felt Qualifying up until the point of his accident at the final turn with just over two minutes of the session remaining was the strongest of the year to date, and the Briton believes he had a chance of putting his car onto the second row of the grid.
“I think that was our best qualifying session of the year in terms of pure pace – and the worst in terms of the outcome,” said Russell, who will start fifth. “Racing can be like that sometimes.
“I could have been P4 this afternoon and I was one tenth up on my lap, and absolutely went for it because I thought there was a chance of P3.”
Russell says he feels fine after the crash but has concerns surrounding the damage to the car, but he hopes the pace he had on Friday can translate into a better day and a strong Sprint race on Saturday.
“I’m feeling fine physically – but I’m concerned about the car,” he said. “I hope we can recover it. In terms of performance, there are positive signs. We have brought some things to the car, and the interpretation of some rules has probably been in our favour, too.
“Lewis was doing a phenomenal job and absolutely flying today. Maybe I went a bit the wrong direction on set-up for qualifying; but hopefully that will be good for the race.
“Ordinarily we have better race pace than single lap, so hopefully tomorrow, we can make up for today.”
“I don’t have an answer right now to what happened” – Lewis Hamilton
Team-mate Hamilton crashed earlier in Q3 and will start the race from tenth on the grid, and the seven-time World Champion apologised to the team for the crash at turn seven.
Hamilton admits he does not know what caused him to go off the track, but like Russell, he felt he was in the fight for a place on the second row of the grid.
However, he knows he will have to make early gains on Saturday if he is to score points in the Sprint race, and with a competitive-looking car, he has high hopes for the rest of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.
“I’m incredibly disappointed in myself ultimately and so sorry to the team,” said Hamilton. “Everyone worked so hard to put the car together -and I never like to bring it back damaged.
“I don’t have an answer right now to what happened. I lost the back end in Turn Seven and that was that. I was encouraged to see our performance, though. I think we were fighting for a top three start – and we weren’t expecting to be that close. That’s a huge positive for the team.
“I’m starting quite far back, and I’m not sure what’s possible from there. We have the Sprint tomorrow as well as the race on Sunday; hopefully tomorrow I can make up for some lost time.”
Lewis Hamilton will start tenth in Saturday’s Sprint race – Credit: Jiri Krenek