Antonelli’s FP1 crash ‘put me at a disadvantage’ for qualifying at Monza

George Russell was pleased with his third qualifying result for the Italian Grand Prix, having not had much track time last weekend after new Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli suffered a crash in his first free practice session at Parabolica.

The Briton gave up his seat to Antonelli, in accordance with the VT1 rules for novice Formula 1 drivers. The Italian rookie impressed during his one-and-a-half lap race, before ending his session abruptly with a big crash at the final corner.

This forced Mercedes mechanics to carry out multiple repairs, which also took place in FP2, meaning Russell was able to spend less time on track on Friday.

With only FP3 to go, Russell felt he could no longer cope with the aftermath of Antonelli’s accident and was reluctant to make too many changes to optimise his set-up for qualifying and the race. Ultimately, he felt he had only just made it through to Q3.

“It was a weekend of ups and downs. I obviously missed a lot yesterday, which really put me on the back foot,” Russell said.

“We didn’t make many changes from FP3 to qualifying, because that was really my first real session on track. Q1 and Q2 were really messy; I had no confidence, didn’t feel good in the car.

“I just got through the session and then suddenly I managed to get into the sweet spot for Q3. Both laps had us in third or fourth place and we obviously finished third. So I’m pretty happy with that result and I’m curious to see how close everyone else is.”

George Russel, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Russell felt he had to improvise ahead of Sunday’s race, as he lacked the necessary long-term data and had no idea what to expect from the 53-lap Grand Prix.

He added that the crash had depleted supplies of spare parts and warned that Mercedes may have to revert to older specifications if he or Lewis Hamilton ran into problems at the Italian GP.

“I don’t really know what to expect because I haven’t really done any laps yet, to be honest,” he added. “So I just have to trust my instincts and really go from there and adapt. I’m really happy to be in P3 after the day we’ve had, and the car definitely looks like it has potential.

“We’ve lost quite a few parts, so fingers crossed that Lewis and I don’t do any more damage. Otherwise we’ll have to go back to some old parts, unless we can get some new parts made in the meantime.

“It’s not the end of the world, as long as we both don’t cause any further damage. Right now we don’t have any spare parts for our upgraded gear.”