A bitterly disappointed Russell explains what caused his Mercedes fault in Monaco qualifying

21:31, 24 May

Updated: 21:49, 24 May

byToby Nixon

A downbeat George Russell has reflected on his 'disappointing' qualifying performance in Monaco. The Mercedes driver finished in 14th place after his Mercedes lost power in the first portion of a Q2 flying lap.

The Brit is certain that the power cut out after running over a bump on the Monte Carlo Street Circuit. "Yeah it was definitely the cause, but it was a bump in the straight, a bump that's been there all weekend, and a bump that I felt all weekend, but for whatever reason on this occasion the whole engine switched off when I hit this bump," he began to GPblog and others in the paddock.

Mercedes got themselves 'lost' this weekend in Monaco

It's been a tough weekend overall for Mercedes. The Silver Arrows never looked convincing challengers in practice. As well as Russell's incident, Kimi Antonelli crashed in qualifying and will line up in 15th place, just one behind his teammate.

"Really disappointing because we got ourselves a bit lost this weekend with the set up and we went back to basics for qualifying from lap one. I felt back in the game and also Kimi stayed with probably more of the set-up that he had in FP3. I went back to something that we knew and he was struggling and we were there. I really feel we would have been in the top four today. And now we're not."

Russell's car was pushed through the tunnel after his Mercedes broke down

What can we expect from tomorrow's mandatory two-stop race?

In order to improve the Monaco Grand Prix's sporting spectacle, a mandatory two-stop strategy has been introduced. Due to Russell's lowly starting position, Mercedes may take risks during tomorrow's race to move forward. "You're going to see one of two things, people pitting on lap one, or people going really long into the race," he explained. "So, you know, we do have a small advantage with the two hard tyres, but if you can't pass, there's not much you can do."