Russell suspects Verstappen incident before final lap cost him pole · RaceFans

George Russell said an incident between him and Max Verstappen before his final flying lap cost him a chance to start the race from pole position.

Verstappen is under investigation for potentially driving too slowly at the time of the incident between the two prior to their final flying laps in Q3.

Russell caught Verstappen at the exit of turn 12 and ran onto the kerb as he tried to avoid the Red Bull. “Super-dangerous by Verstappen,” he told race engineer Marcus Dudley on his race.

The pair then began their final laps and Russell fell short of beating Verstappen to pole position by 55 thousandths of a second. He suspects the incident between the pair cost him the chance to improve.

“My first lap was really strong,” said Russell. “I was really pleased with that. I think it was a couple of tenths clear.

“Then I just didn’t improve on that last lap. Obviously, I had a really scrappy out-lap with the near-collision with Max, and I ended up going through the gravel two corners prior to opening my lap. So it was not a good start. So that was probably the 55 milliseconds.”

Prior to the final laps, Russell held provisional pole position with a time of 1’20.575. His final lap was almost three tenths of a second slower.

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The Mercedes driver was nonetheless pleased to claim his second front row start in as many days. He finished the sprint race earlier today third after pressuring the two McLaren drivers throughout.

“It’s great to be in this groove at the moment, four front row starts in a row, which has been really pleasing considering where we were three or four races ago,” he said.

“The race pace this morning looked great. So Max did a great job. Red Bull seemed to turn it around a little bit since yesterday, but let’s see what tomorrow brings.”