George Russell added another unfortunate reliability issue to his tally as he had to abandon his car at the end of Qualifying in Hungary due to a sudden leak, which he likened to \u201ca water pistol being sprayed at the tyres\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mercedes<\/a>, and especially Russell<\/a>, had struggled to keep up with rivals Ferrari<\/a> and McLaren<\/a> when it came to single lap pace at the Hungaroring<\/a>, and their woes continued as they headed into Qualifying<\/a>.<\/p>\n Grid position can be key at this circuit due to its limited overtaking opportunities, with Russell\u2019s first effort in Q3 enough for P7. He joined the remaining drivers in lining up a final flying lap but had to abort it after Max Verstappen<\/a> spun at Turn 13.<\/p>\n He subsequently maintained P7 and was shown slowing to a halt at the first corner after Mercedes instructed him to park up, later revealing that his car had a water leak and possible further damage that the team will have to amend overnight.<\/p>\n Russell explained: \u201cIt didn\u2019t really affect anything, although there was a water leak and we saw on the tyre temperatures that water was spraying on the tyres during my last lap, so my last lap was rubbish.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s maybe a reason for it because it was like a water pistol being sprayed at the tyres, which doesn\u2019t necessarily give you more grip. The truth is that this whole weekend, we haven\u2019t really had the pace.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve looked very strong in the race pace. Did we strike the right balance between the Quali set-up and the race set-up is maybe the question we\u2019ll have answered tomorrow. Just struggled to get the tyres switched on all day.\u201d<\/p>\n Russell has suffered the consequences of several problems at Mercedes this season, with the team revealing ahead of this weekend that they discovered and fixed a software issue that caused him to lose power at the recent Belgian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n