Russell was confident of pole: "I was a tenth ahead"

George Russell thinks his final flying lap in Q3 would have been enough to take pole away from Max Verstappen, but he squandered his chances by making a costly mistake. Over at Viaplay, he explains how his qualifying went.

Russell thought he was going for pole

According to Russell, pole would have been "absolutely possible" for him, but he ruined it by making a mistake on his last flying lap in Q3. "I'm really disappointed to have missed it. The car felt good, but in Q1 I struggled to get into the rhythm. That was a bit disappointing," the Mercedes driver analysed his qualifying.

In Q2, Russell fared better and in his final flying lap of Q3, he started with a fastest first sector, but could not finish. "I was a tenth ahead and thought: here we go, it's coming to me now. One corner later it all disappeared," he continued.

"I lost two-tenths, gained it back but I made another mistake by overdriving. Surprised to be second with how scrappy Q3 was on my behalf," he adds. Russell takes as a positive that Mercedes looks competitive for Sunday's race, but fears he will fall short of victory.

"We definitely have the car to fight them, the straight-line speed is less here. Not enough that we can out-drag Max into turn one, but we have a real chance tomorrow so will be an exciting race," Russell said.