George Russell leads Mercedes with a strong performance in Monaco qualifying, just 0.3 seconds off pole, showcasing the team’s competitive edge on the challenging urban circuit.
George Russell secured 5th place on the grid, making him the leading Mercedes F1 driver at Monaco.
Only three-tenths of a second shy of pole position, Russell was in contention for the coveted top spot on this urban circuit, but the W15 still needs a bit more.
“I’m very pleased. It was tough yesterday; I didn’t have a good feeling and there were massive vibrations in the car. Those two things together are not what you want in Monaco, but the car came alive during qualifying and we were very close—just 20 thousandths from third place,” said Russell.
“Two more grid places would have been a great advantage for achieving our goals. But the most important thing is that the team worked very hard to bring updates earlier than expected.”
“The team is working tirelessly at the factory, and the mechanics worked hard last night to try to remove those vibrations from the car. There’s a huge amount of effort everywhere, and this result proves we’re making progress.”
In 7th place, Lewis Hamilton is much more disappointed than his teammate. He believes the latest upgrades, which Russell has but he doesn’t, influenced the final positions.
“It looked promising yesterday. We worked hard to improve this car and right from the start, it felt great. We were obviously competitive yesterday and this morning.”
“We haven’t made any drastic changes or anything like that. The team worked very hard to bring an improvement over the last few races and this weekend, but we only had one and it went to George.”
“I’m a bit disappointed not to be higher, but it’s very, very tight.”
“I knew it would be tough to qualify ahead of George because he has the upgraded component, but it’s great to see us making improvements.”
“I automatically know I’m going to lose two-tenths before qualifying. But this time, it was a bit too much. It’s really frustrating, and I don’t have an answer. I’m not driving differently. The laps were great. There’s just something missing for some reason.”
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Mercedes Impresses in Monaco Qualifying Mercedes Impresses in Monaco Qualifying
