George Russell caused a stir at the very end of qualifying in China and came within a hair’s breadth of taking pole position – where did the Mercedes driver’s sudden pace come from?
For Mercedes as a carmaker, China is not only an important market, but there also seems to be a special love affair between the Shanghai circuit and the brand with the three-pointed star: Norbert Haug, then head of Mercedes Motorsport, pointed to the Mercedes star on Nico Rosberg’s overalls, followed by Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton on the Chinese podium in 2012.
Memories were awakened on Saturday, because once again in China, two McLaren-Mercedes and a works Mercedes are at the front of the grid, albeit in a different order. For McLaren CEO Zak Brown, Oscar Piastri’s pole position naturally puts him in a good mood, but he also has extra praise for his opponent: “An epic lap from George. I just said to Toto: It’s great to have three Mercedes at the front.”
Speaking to Sky, the American added: ”If you look at what we’ve seen so far, you would have expected it to be Max or maybe the Ferraris. But it’s cool to see George out in front. We like George,” Brown finds warm words for the runner-up in the spirit of the joint engine alliance.
Wolff’s hope: ‘If we hit the tire window…’
The aforementioned Wolff should also have been pleased with that, but of course the Viennese would have liked pole for Russell even more. He had no doubts after qualifying that it was possible: “We knew that if we hit the tire window, it could work. But then we saw the delta time, which kept coming down and going faster and faster. Then there was a chance of being on pole,” Wolff said on Sky: “Of course it’s gratifying to see that.”
But where did Mercedes’ performance come from all of a sudden? Technical expert Philipp Brändle, who worked as an aerodynamics engineer for the Silver Arrows for many years, offers “a guess as to why that was” on ServusTV: “In fact, the track temperature dropped, and something like that is actually only good for one car – and that’s the Mercedes.” Last year, the Stuttgart-based team always made major performance leaps when it got cooler.
In the final attempt in Q3 on Saturday, most of the drivers found it difficult to beat their times, despite the usual track development – but not Russell. According to the Brit, his sudden improvement had a different reason: “It’s been a really big challenge this weekend for everyone to get the tyres dialled in and to figure out the best strategy for the session – do you go hot or cold for the warm-up lap?” he said.
Russell’s secret of success? A slow warm-up lap!
“I’ve tried a few different approaches and switched back and forth a bit. On my last lap, I finally tried something completely different – and it worked,” says the Mercedes driver, revealing his ultimate recipe for success: ”I took the warm-up lap extremely slowly after the pit stop before starting my flying lap.”
On his first lap in Q3, he still “went flat out, and it felt okay”, but the result was not yet so satisfying, with fifth place and a few tenths behind the leader. “Then, on my final lap, I suddenly found another four tenths,” says Russell, referring to the different approach to warming up the tires. In the end, he was just 82 thousandths of a second off Piastri’s pole time.
“Second place was a real surprise, so I’m really very happy with that,” said the Briton: “Everything came together perfectly, and it feels incredibly rewarding to set your best lap of the weekend when it really counts. Starting from the front row tomorrow is a great starting position.” Team Principal Wolff has special praise for him: ‘The performance he showed today shows that he is simply a top driver and one of the best.’
For Russell himself, one thing is clear when he looks at the result: ”We saw that just two tenths separated us from sixth place, with Ferrari, Kimi and Max.” The Briton currently ranks the performance level of his Mercedes “somewhere between third and seventh place” in a cross-comparison. That’s why Russell is sure: “Anything better than third place is a huge result right now – for any team.” Even if McLaren’s customer team was ahead by the blink of an eye in the end.
