Following a ‘P7-grabbing’ run at Imola, George Russell now appears to be back on track at Monaca. His sprints during the FPs and from today’s qualification rounds clearly show this.
After today’s quali, the Mercedes man revved his mouth with some ‘positive’ words ahead of the 2024 Monaco GP.
George Russell calls P5 quali run as ‘good progress’ ahead of 2024 Monaco GP
As all F1 challengers were lap-logging today, George Russell ran his Mercedes W15 with an upgraded front wing at Monaco. This upgrade was highly ‘fruitful’ as he ended with 1:11.492 (Q1), 1:10.929 (Q2), and 1:10.543 (Q3) lap times. It was the Briton’s best qualifying run since the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.
In the post-quali interview, Russell lauded his P5 finish as ‘good progress by Mercedes. Reflecting on this result, he quoted:
“Really strong result today. We are making huge progress at the moment. We’ve brought new bits to the car this weekend and it’s been great.”
Today’s qualifying was tightly-contested with just a tenth separating McLaren’s Oscar Piastri (P2) and fifth-placed Russell. The Mercedes driver expressed his ‘slight’ frustration over failing P3 during the post-quali session.
“Two hundreds from P3 which is frustrating when it’s so close.”
Having won the race back in 2019, Mercedes has failed to tame the Circuit de Monaco for the past five seasons. Seeing today’s run from himself and teammate Lewis Hamilton, Russell added:
“I am hoping it is a turning point. Monaco has never been a strength for our car.”
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Russell’s W15 F1 car was almost dancing in the Monaco track’s first sector. Talking about this, he continued:
“The lap felt strong. I was happy with it. The adrenaline that this circuit gives you, when you finish a lap, is ginormous. It could have been P3. It was P5, in the end. We are making progress.”
Looking ahead of tomorrow’s race, he admitted that rain would surely ‘spice things up’ leading to a ‘chaotic’ Sunday at Monaco.
“The past couple of years, it has been chaotic. I’m unsure if there is rain on the horizon. We’d all welcome that, to spice things up.”
With the Circuit de Monaco being ‘tighly-spaced’, F1 drivers tend to finish in the positions where they start. However, he still hopes for a solid result with Mercedes’ new upgrades.
“We want the best result but most importantly we are making progress. The team have done an amazing job to bring upgrades sooner than expected.”
Team Principal Toto Wolff also lauded the team back at Brackley for carrying out a ‘mega job’ based on upgrades.
In any case, George Russell and Hamilton will start from P5 and P7 tomorrow at the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix. The race will officially kick off at 15:00 CST.
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