George Russell and Lewis Hamilton are set to kick off their Saudi Arabian Grand Prix campaign from the fourth row of the grid after encountering a frustrating qualifying session, leaving them in seventh and eighth positions respectively.
Despite overnight adjustments that notably enhanced the balance of Mercedes’ W15 during FP3, qualifying posed a more formidable challenge. Securing strong single-lap pace proved to be a daunting task, particularly in the demanding first sector of the Jeddah circuit.
Both drivers successfully advanced to Q3, although Hamilton narrowly avoided elimination during the process. However, Russell’s final attempt on the soft tires was hindered by a mistake, while Hamilton managed a slight improvement on his second flying lap.
The overnight changes made by the Mercedes team were effective in enhancing the car’s performance during practice, yet the complexities of qualifying thwarted their efforts to secure more advantageous starting positions for the race.
“That was a very annoying qualifying session!” Wolff commented. “We’ve got a quick car, but it is on a knife’s edge.
“The drivers are struggling to squeeze out the lap consistently. George was on his way to a strong lap and could have been fighting for spots on the second row. Unfortunately he lost the rear of the car.
“Lewis meanwhile never had the feedback from the car that he wanted, and that meant he couldn’t go faster.”.
Russell took responsibility for his mistake during the top-ten shootout, where he ended up 0.844 seconds behind Red Bull’s pole-sitter, Max Verstappen.
“Unfortunately I was unable to complete my last lap on the new tyres,” he stated. “I made a mistake, which is on me, and that was that. My quickest lap therefore was on the used tyres.
“It was a strong one but if I had finished my final effort, I think we may have been fighting for P4 or even higher.
“It is so tight out there and we saw last week that if you don’t get everything together, then you can lose several positions.
“We are still learning about this car; we were P1 and P2 in practice in Bahrain and P2 here again yesterday. We slipped back today but there is potential there. It’s a long season so we will be looking to understand more about the platform we have and deliver more consistently.”
Despite his frustration, Russell expressed confidence in Mercedes having a strong race car for Saturday’s event.
“We look quick in a straight-line, which is a bonus. It’s tricky to follow here though and it should be a simple one-stop with the degradation. We need to make a good start and see what we can do from there.”
Hamilton entered the Friday evening session with optimism, buoyed by the positive changes he had witnessed during FP3.
“It was a very difficult day today,” he stated. “I was much happier in FP3, and the car was feeling much better than on Thursday. It was a real improvement, and I had a lot more confidence in the car.
“Unfortunately, in qualifying, it felt similar to yesterday and I didn’t have the stability from the car that I needed. It was a struggle, and we were losing out particularly in the high-speed first sector.
“Our race pace is typically better than our qualifying pace. We have also been quick in a straight-line so hopefully that helps us. It will be difficult, but we will be giving it everything we’ve got to progress forward tomorrow. If we can do so, that would be great. “
“I think the race pace will be very close between ourselves, the Ferraris, and the McLarens,” Wolff concluded . “Our target is to try to be ahead of them tomorrow, but we know overtaking isn’t easy here.
“Last week, we thought we had a car that was quicker in race trim, but we were unable to show that. Hopefully we will have a better evening here in Jeddah. We will do our best and see what we can deliver.”
