When the lights exit Sunday for the Singapore Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will probably be proper beside one another. The Mercedes duo locked out the second row throughout Saturday’s qualifying session, with Hamilton qualifying third and Russell ending fourth.
Relying on which crew member you speak to — and if you talked to them — that was both an underwhelming outcome or one thing they completely would have dreamed of earlier this week.
Russell particularly highlighted these highs and lows within the crew’s post-qualifying report.
“For those who had advised us yesterday that we might qualify on the second row of the grid, we might have completely taken that. With the enhancements we made in a single day although, and the way the automobile felt in FP3, I might have reconsidered,” started Russell.
“I used to be feeling tremendous assured within the automobile, and all the things was coming simply. That feeling abandoned us in Q1 although and I might have bitten your hand off for P4,” continued Russell. “We have been affected by a scarcity of grip and have been solely simply capable of progress by way of every phase to Q3. I used to be capable of put in an honest lap although as soon as we have been there and general, we will’t be upset with the place we now have ended the day.”
Throughout the first phase of qualifying Russell sounded nearly panicked relating to the tires on the W15, as he struggled to search out any grip on the circuit. However when Q3 got here to a detailed there he was, up in P4.
Struggles at Ferrari could have performed a job, as Carlos Sainz Jr.’s laborious shunt initially of Q3 introduced his qualifying to an finish and the purple flag out on the monitor. When qualifying resumed every driver had sufficient time for one lap, and Charles Leclerc noticed his effort deleted for exceeding monitor limits.
As for Hamilton, he certified third, a outcome he hailed given his qualifying struggles this season.
“I’ve been working actually laborious to enhance my qualifying performances and to get myself again up on the entrance on a Saturday. The automobile got here alive right this moment and we had one among our strongest Saturdays shortly,” mentioned Hamilton within the crew’s report. “That was an awesome feeling. Having only one effort in Q3 after the purple flag was difficult, and there was maybe a bit of bit extra left within the automobile, however general, I’m actually grateful for what we achieved right this moment.”
Hamilton elaborated on how satisfying the outcome was within the FIA Press Convention after the qualifying session.
“I imply, simply to be up right here with these guys [pole-sitter Lando Norris and Max Verstappen], nice drivers. I’ve not been up right here for some time and yeah, qualifying has been a nightmare for fairly a very long time,” mentioned Hamilton after the session. “So it feels nice to be up right here. I really feel very, very grateful and really, very comfortable. And I believe hopefully from right here, George and I are within the second row, so hopefully from right here we will apply strain to those two and to even to be forward of one other McLaren and one other Purple Bull and in addition the Ferraris is mega, contemplating how briskly the Ferraris notably are right here. So yeah, I hope that we will maintain on to those guys tomorrow.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff echoed the ideas of an up-and-down weekend up to now for the crew.
“After a troublesome Friday, we might have completely accepted, and been proud of, locking out the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s race. With the progress we made with the automobile in a single day although, and subsequent tempo we confirmed in FP3, P3 and P4 feels a bit of underwhelming,” described Wolff. “With all that mentioned, it isn’t a foul place to be beginning the race from.”
The Mercedes boss expects much more “fluctuations” within the race itself.
“The fluctuations in efficiency throughout Friday and Saturday that has affected many groups has been unusual,” mentioned Wolff. “Ferrari dropped again a bit of right this moment while Max [Verstappen] took a step ahead, together with ourselves.
“I believe we are going to see extra of these fluctuations tomorrow, too. Hopefully the work we’ve performed to enhance the automobile from Friday may even translate into our race tempo and we will have a aggressive Sunday preventing for the rostrum.”
