George Russell aims ‘always’ warning at F1 rivals before United States GP Sprint

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Mercedes driver George Russell has now aimed a warning at his Formula 1 rivals ahead of the Sprint Shootout at the United States GP after qualifying in P5 for the Grand Prix.

The Briton endured what he admits was a ‘strange’ Friday at the Circuit of the Americas with difficulties finding speed. Mercedes have brought upgrades to the United States GP with the Silver Arrows debuting their revised floor. But Russell feared he would not make it out of Q2.

Russell struggled from the off and posted a lap time three-tenths of a second down on Lewis Hamilton’s FP1 pace. The 25-year-old’s deficit to his Mercedes teammate also stretched to a full second in Q1. Russell reduced their gap back to three-tenths in Q2 and two-tenths in Q3.

Russell warns his F1 rivals that Mercedes are ‘always’ better in the Sprint Shootout

Hamilton’s Q3 time of a 1:34.862 was enough for the seven-time Formula 1 champion to get P3. He missed out on pole at COTA by a tenth of a second to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with McLaren’s Lando Norris taking P2. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will only start the US GP in P6.

But Russell warns his F1 rivals that Mercedes are ‘always’ better in the Sprint Shootout than they are in qualifying for the Grand Prix on Sprint weekends. So, he hopes to better his P5 in qualifying for the Grand Prix now that the Silver Arrows have had time to assess their Friday.

“I’ll take those positives, try and work on it tonight,” Russell noted after qualifying on Friday, via quotes by Motorsport Week. “Always, the Saturday Sprint qualis tend to go better for us than they do on the Friday evenings, bar Qatar, and we’ll go from there.”

Russell admits he had a ‘strange’ Friday as Mercedes’ upgrades delivered

Just taking P5 in qualifying for the United States GP was a positive for Russell, having feared not making it through to Q3 despite Mercedes’ upgrades. The Briton can feel the benefits of the revised floor the Silver Arrows took to COTA. But he struggled to deliver flying lap times.

“For me, it’s been a really challenging day,” Russell admitted. “I’ve been off the pace, I don’t really know why. It’s been feeling quite good, the update, we can feel the improvements.

“But it’s been a bit of a strange day for me. So, I’m actually pretty pleased with P5 because, at some points, it was looking likely that we may not even have got through to Q3.”

Russell will hope the United States GP Sprint Shootout is just like in Azerbaijan

Russell will now hope that the United States GP Sprint weekend follows the trend Mercedes set at the Azerbaijan, Austrian and Belgian Grand Prix. He qualified P11 for the Grand Prix in Baku and Spielberg, plus P8 at Spa. Russell occupied P2 on the grid for the Qatar Grand Prix.

A night of studying their data then saw Russell qualify P4 for the Sprint at the Azerbaijan GP. He did not improve at the Austrian GP with P15 in the Sprint Shootout. While sudden rain in the Sprint Shootout at the Belgian GP cost Russell. He only took P10, having also locked up.