George Russell: Mercedes’ pace ‘a tough pill to swallow’ | ‘It’s quite confusing’

George Russell says Mercedes’ performance in the Sao Paulo sprint race was a “tough pill to swallow” after he finished over 25 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen.
George Russell (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W14. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 21, Brazilian Grand Prix, Sao Paulo, Brazil,
George Russell (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W14. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 21, Brazilian…

Russell enjoyed a storming start at Interlagos, getting past 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Sergio Perez and then 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lando Norris on the opening lap.

Howev꧒er, the good start didn’t last as Mercedes struggled with tyre degradation.

Russell was able to secure fourth after losing out to Norris and Perez, while teammate 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton fell back to seventh by the end of the race.

Mercedes typically have excelled in race trim, relative qualifying, leaving Russell confused after the 24-l💃ap race in Brazil.

"It was a tough pill to swallow,” he said. “It’s really quite confusing.  Unfortunately it’s always down to these tyres and getting them in the sweet 💯spot.

“Especially these last two weekends, nobody’s really understood when it’s working for them, and they’ve found a 🐓lot of performance, like Ferrari in qualifying last week, then we found our pace in the race and suddenly it wasn’t there for us today when we expected quite a lot. So I don’t know going into tomorrow. 

George Russell (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W14. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 21, Brazilian Grand Prix, Sao Paulo, Brazil,
George Russell (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W14. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 21, Brazilian Grand…

“Right now, obviously we’re not too optimistic, but conditions are different and that can totally change ev🍷erything.”

Russell conceded the significant gap to Verstappen and Norris was “quite surpꦕrising”.

“I enjoyed the first lap, wi꧋th Lando,” he added. “It was a bit tight. To be honest, the pace we had was in line with my expectations but everܫyone else was substantially quicker. 

“With Max, we’ve never been that far behind. He finished 25 seconds ahead in 24 laps. Over a s🎃econd a lap. Th꧒at was really quite surprising for us.”

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