George Russell eyes qualifying as the target in Mexico. Photo: RacePictures.

Russell buoyed by tight margins as McLaren's key weakness targeted

15:44, 25 Oct

byNorberto Mujica

George Russell ended Friday’s second practice session for the Mexico City Grand Prix in sixth place and underlined that Mercedes’ main focus will be on qualifying, with overtaking proving increasingly difficult in the current generation of cars.

Reflecting on his afternoon, Russell said the margins were tight around the short and technical Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit.

“It’s close out there, it’s obviously a short track, it’s like a minute, a minute 17, a minute 16 is gonna be the lap time, so the margins are always tight,” he explained.

McLaren's race pace certainly raised eyebrows on Friday, with their race pace being the team's main strength, but in recent races they've struggled with their qualifying pace, being unable to clinch pole in the past four Saturday afternoon sessions, something Russell is eager to capitalise on.

Photo: RacePictures.

“Single lap I think we look okay, Lando looked very quick on his long run, which has obviously been the theme, but as we know qualifying’s so important, so it’s sort of all eyes on that for tomorrow, and see what we can do, but it’ll be close between the top eight cars.”

With the compressed field and narrow layout, Russell also warned that traffic could be a major obstacle during qualifying.

“Yeah, I mean, this is, I don’t know if it’s the second, I think it’s the second shortest track of the season, this one, third, alright, so third shortest track of the season and especially this last sector is so slow speed, tight and twisty,” he said.

Photo: RacePictures.

“So traffic in Q1, Q2 is going to be an issue, same for everybody. You can’t take too much margin because the gaps are so close and obviously in Q1 the backfield cars are often going two or three sets of new tyres.

"And if you want to get to Q3 with two sets, you can’t be throwing tyres at it. So, it’s never straightforward," he concluded.

Mercedes is close in Mexico

After Friday's action at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mercedes seem to be able to fight for the top spots in Mexico, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli finishing FP1 in P2, and both Mercedes drivers slotting in P3 and P6 respectively in the afternoon session.

To have a better overview of each team's chances during qualifying you can read our post-Friday technical analysis here.

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