George Russell has conceded that he needs to understand his \u201cstrange\u201d lack of pace during Sprint Qualifying at the British Grand Prix, with the Mercedes driver also left \u201cvery surprised\u201d by the performance of Ferrari during the session.<\/p>\n
Russell<\/a> had not looked quite as comfortable at the wheel of the W17 as Kimi Antonelli<\/a> in Friday\u2019s sole practice hour earlier on, setting a time some four tenths off his team mate\u2019s effort \u2013 but it was Lewis Hamilton<\/a> who ultimately went quickest ahead of the Italian.<\/p>\n This again proved to be the case in Sprint Qualifying, with Hamilton beating Antonelli to pole while the other Scuderia car of Charles Leclerc<\/a> claimed fourth place. Max Verstappen<\/a> took third in the Red Bull<\/a>, while Russell had to settle for P5 \u2013 his time again just under four tenths away from Hamilton\u2019s.<\/p>\n Speaking after the session, Russell said of his day on track at Silverstone: \u201cIt\u2019s kind of the story of the year, to be honest \u2013 always on the back foot.<\/p>\n \u201cUsually come Q3 I can generally make a step, but today was not quite the case. It was very close to P3 but it\u2019s still very much off the pace of Lewis and Kimi, so I need to try and understand why that is. It\u2019s a bit strange.\u201d<\/p>\n Pushed on whether he had felt from the start of Friday\u2019s running that the car was not quite where he wanted it to be, the Briton answered: \u201cI think it\u2019s feeling quite good out there, to be honest. It\u2019s not feeling too bad.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we were all expecting it to feel a bit worse, just in terms of driving these cars here, but it actually felt quite okay and the high-speed felt fast. But as I said, relative lap time is just not really there, so we need to understand tomorrow for the more important day.\u201d<\/p>\n