George Russell is chasing back-to-back F1 wins after his Las Vegas success, and his run to P2 on the grid for the sprint shows Mercedes is right in the fight against McLaren.
Russell revealed in his post-sprint qualifying interview that he actually went too quick at one point, which confused the engine because the battery deployment was not set up for him to go flat through one of the sections, costing him time. Russell said:
💬 “That was a bit annoying when I nailed it, and then lost a bit of speed on the exit. But I think Lando was just a smidge out of reach.”
Asked if he thought it was possible to take the fight to Norris, Russell replied:
💬 “Yeah definitely. They’re in a championship fight, we’ve got nothing to lose, we’re going for the big results.
“We’ll try and make a good start. Of course the sprint is just a sprint, we need to put our focus on qualifying as well. So far, so good.”