Russell stunned after ‘falling like a brick’ in Dutch GP

George Russell admitted he was “scratching his head” after slipping during the Dutch Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver qualified fourth and had looked strong all weekend leading up to Sunday’s race, but struggled for pace and finished seventh, one place ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Russell, 26, who started this weekend without being denied victory in the Belgian Grand Prix after his car was disqualified for being too light, said he was astonished to be so far behind.

“We just didn’t have the pace,” the Briton complained. “I dropped like a stone – very surprised especially against Ferrari. We expected to be comfortably ahead of them, and Charles (Leclerc) was quicker, Carlos (Sainz) was closing in on me. It was clear there was something wrong with the tyres.

“After the first few laps I thought we were on our way to a podium, I knew overtaking was going to be tough. I was really shocked by how quick McLaren was.

“Lando (Norris) seemed so comfortable there, it was really impressive to see. But we’ve had six really strong races and then suddenly we’ve finished almost a minute behind the winner. All those performances didn’t just disappear overnight.

“We qualified fourth and clearly did something wrong (in the race). To be honest, at the moment I’m still scratching my head. It was very tough conditions, you know, that wind with those long corners. At the moment I don’t have any answers.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Meanwhile, Hamilton was frustrated by the three-place grid penalty he was given for blocking Sergio Perez, saying the grid drop had prevented him from reaching the podium.

“I had a lot of fun today,” said the seven-time world champion. “We planned to do a two-stop, started on the soft tyre – the soft tyre was a very good tyre, it felt much better than the medium tyre in practice.

“The hard tyre was quite good, it was difficult to see what to do. I was on a two-stopper, so I was trying to use up the tyre, but I also wasn’t sure if we might go for a one (stop).

“If I had made the one-stop and done a little bit better, I probably could have made the one-stop and maybe gained a spot.

When asked if the result would have been better without his grid penalty, Hamilton replied: “Yes, definitely, if I had just qualified like I should have.

“If I hadn’t had the problem in qualifying, I would have. I think I had the speed today to get into the top five – if I had started fourth, for example, I would have finished at least fourth.”