Russell explains “crazy” Mercedes problems after China F1 recovery

George Russell has explained the issues that plagued his qualifying session at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Russell and team principal Toto Wolff fear the worst when the Briton’s Mercedes crawled to a halt moments after joining the track in Q3, this after a front wing failure was reported as the flag fell in Q2.

But the Mercedes mechanics completed a remarkable job to get the early championship leader back out onto the track as the clock ticked down in Q3, with Russell able to deliver a time good enough to line up second on the grid, behind only team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

“Firstly, congrats to Kimi, but I think we did a really great job on our side,” said Russell.

“It was a crazy session from the end of Q2. The front wing broke and the teams weren’t sure if it had broken or not. I was pretty sure it had, and there was a bit of stress around that and changing the front wing.

“As soon as I went out on track [in Q3] I could tell that something wasn’t right. I stopped on the track, tried to restart, it didn’t restart, then it restarted later.

“I got back and couldn’t shift gears, then we got back on track with moments to spare, and I’m really happy to be sat here right now, because I could easily have been down in P10 without a time on the board.”

Revealing how the last-gasp nature of his on-track return had affected his Q3 effort, Russell added: “It was as good as I could have achieved, but I had no battery at the start of the lap, and my tyres were cold, but as I said, I’m very grateful to be sat here right now.

“It was more a case of getting a time on the board. I knew that Kimi has been really strong and things were far from optimised on my side, so it was more a case of get the car across the line and make sure I’m starting in a sensible position.

“P2 was much better than I expected when I started the lap with no battery and no tyre temperature. I was expecting to be further down the order.”

Wolff “surprise” at Russell recovery

Wolff has watched his Mercedes team return to the front of F1 for the first time since the introduction of the ground effect era in 2022, a period where the team failed to get on top of the regulations.

Although this is the first qualifying session not to be topped by Russell this season, much like the driver, Wolff feared his driver could have been starting from the back of the fifth row.

“It looks like it’s electrical,” said Wolff when asked by Sky Sports about Russell’s problem.

“We had to power cycle the car three times like an iPhone; switch it on, switch it off, and then off it went. I didn’t think it was going out, but then, to my surprise, we still did the lap.”