No Q3 for Mercedes
Once again negative result for George Russell in Sprint qualifying this year, in Miami as well as on the occasion of the Chinese GP, the first on the calendar to include this format. The Englishman, in a ‘photocopy’ in Shanghai, did not in fact obtain the ‘pass’ valid for Q3 in qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix, concluding in 11th position. A misstep that adds to that of Lewis Hamiltonauthor of a decidedly inferior performance compared to that of two weeks ago in Asia.
The cause in balancing
While on that occasion the seven-time world champion had given his best with second position, also in wet track conditions, this time the future Ferrari driver completed the11th row all Mercedes with 12th place, and therefore behind his teammate. Having immediately seemed very disappointed at the end of Q2, Hamilton confirmed his disappointment: “In FP the car felt very good and I was happy with the balance – has explained – unfortunately, in Sprint qualifying, the balance changed and the car regressed. We were close to getting through to Q3, but we were a long way away from being at the front. Starting from P12, the Sprint will be difficult for us. I don’t expect much from this race, because it is not an easy circuit to overtake. However, we will try to do our best to get the car into the points.”
Medium tires not up to par
A deterioration from free practice to qualifying that Russell also highlighted: “In FP our car was really good on the soft tyres – he analyzed – the pace seemed good, but in Sprint qualifying, with the medium compound, we were unable to get the car into the right operating window. We found ourselves on the wrong side of the cut-off. Qualifying was very close, with just a few hundredths of a second to advance to Q3. We shouldn’t have been so close to elimination and we will work hard to find improvements. I have no doubt that we will make a comeback in the Sprint. We have to overcome our problems in qualifying, because it is always difficult to start from behind.”
