Antonelli’s FP1 crash “put me on the back foot” for Monza qualifying

George Russell was pleased to qualify third for the Italian Grand Prix given his lack of track time over the weekend, in the wake of new Mercedes recruit Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s FP1 shunt at Parabolica.

The Briton gave up his seat for Antonelli, as per Formula 1’s rookie driver FP1 rules, and the Italian rookie impressed across his lap and a half before bringing his session to an abrupt end with a large crash at the final corner.

This ensured that Mercedes’ mechanics had to make multiple repairs, which spilt over into FP2, sapping Russell’s track time in the car on Friday.

With just FP3 to go on, Russell felt that he was compromised by the aftermath of Antonelli’s accident and did not feel comfortable making too many changes to optimise his set-up for qualifying and the race – ultimately feeling he only “scraped” into Q3.

“It was a very up-and-down weekend. Obviously, I missed a lot yesterday, which put me really on the back foot,” Russell said.

“We hadn’t made a lot of changes from FP3 into qualifying because that was really my first proper session out on track. Q1 and Q2 were really, really messy; I wasn’t confident, didn’t feel good in the car.

“I just sort of scraped through the session and then suddenly managed to get in the sweet spot for Q3, both my laps had us third or fourth and we obviously ended up third. So I’m pretty pleased with that result and excited to see how close it is with everyone.”

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Looking towards Sunday’s race, Russell felt that he was going to have to improvise given his lack of long-run data, with little idea of what to expect in the 53-lap grand prix.

He added that the crash had run some of the spare part stocks dry, warning that Mercedes might have to revert to older specifications if he or Lewis Hamilton found themselves in strife during the Italian GP.

“I don’t really know what to expect because I’ve just not really done the laps, to be honest,” he added. “So I just have to trust my instincts and go from there really and adapt on the fly. I’m really pleased to be lining up P3 after the day we’ve had, and the car definitely seems to have potential.

“We’ve lost quite a few parts, so fingers crossed Lewis and I don’t do any further damage. Otherwise, we’ll have to revert to some of the old parts unless we can get some new pieces made in the interim.

“It is not the end of the world as long as we both don’t do any further damage. As it stands, we don’t have any spares of our upgraded stuff.”