George Russell has explained the confusion behind his unusual request to run medium tyres in Q3 of the Italian Grand Prix, after topping Q1 on the compound but being sent out on softs in the final shootout.
Over team radio, Russell vented:
“Uh, I thought I said I wanted the mediums.”
He ultimately qualified sixth but will start fifth thanks to Lewis Hamilton’s grid penalty.
Russell clarified:
“We ran it in Q1 and we were the quickest. After Q2 I said I’d like to use the mediums because I felt more comfortable on it. It wasn’t the first time this season that mediums, for some cars at least, have been faster. I’m not going to stand here and say ‘if only’ – we ultimately didn’t do a good job in Q3 anyway. But a bit annoying.
“In all honesty I probably wasn’t totally clear enough. I just said after Q1 I’d like to use the mediums and I sort of re-emphasised during the middle of Q2. So I asked if we were sticking to plan and they said yes, but I thought the plan was mediums, they thought the plan was fitting the softs. For me I thought it was quite clear because of the performance we showed. A bit of an error on both halves.”
On the race, Russell added:
“Our race pace will probably be better than Ferrari but they’re mighty fast in the straight so we need to try and get ahead of Leclerc from the off otherwise it will be quite a long, frustrating race behind him.”
Kimi Antonelli, the 19-year-old rookie, enjoyed his best qualifying since Canada, taking seventh just behind Russell on home soil.
“I was happy,” Antonelli said. “There was quite a bit more on the table on the last lap. We tried something different with the tyres and just really struggled in the first two sectors, especially with the rear. I had a lot of moments, especially first and second chicane, which was not ideal. The last sector felt strong but obviously the time loss in the first two sectors was too big. Definitely there was more on the table but still happy with how I built the session.
“I was quite nervous going into qualifying because, let’s say, I like to make my life a bit tougher. With the mistake yesterday, we lost quite a bit of laps and then automatically you have to do a different programme for FP3 which is not ideal because you just want to prepare for quali.
“Still a lot to improve, especially on trying to build the weekend more nicely, but looking forward to tomorrow.”
