George Russell has detailed the "annoying" mistake which wrecked his Spanish Grand Prix qualifying and left him sixth on the grid.
Russell, who now trails team-mate Kimi Antonelli by 66 points in the drivers' standings, will be on the third row of the Madrid grid for the first grand prix in the Spanish capital since 1981, with Antonelli poised to extend his lead having taken second.
Russell did hold third place after the first runs in Q3 but was dumped down to sixth after Lando Norris improved to pole, with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc also leapfrogging the Briton.
Recounting what had happened, Russell revealed how a time-loss at Turn 11, just before La Monumental, had ended his bid to earn a fifth pole of the season.
"No, I don't think so," Russell began to media, including RacingNews365, when asked if the wall tap had had any lasting damage.
"Obviously, it was slightly concerning in the moment, but the car was fine. I went out and topped the session afterwards, and then felt in the mix thereafter.
"But just the last lap, I was about three-tenths up, and at Turn 11, the tyres couldn't take it.
"I lost all the lap time thereafter, and so that was annoying.
"It is a strange [track surface]; it is very high-grip, but the tyres are sliding quite a lot, so [the race] is going to be really interesting with the [tyre] degradation."
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Russell bemoans lack of overtaking opportunities
On a track where overtaking looks difficult, Russell detailed how the design just did not aid overtaking, and pointed to the roundabout at Turns 5 and 6.
"It is Jeddah-esque because of the high-speed corners, but there is also some Baku with some awkward braking zones," he said.
"Maybe one small frustration is the design has a lack of clear overtaking opportunities. On every track, at the end of the long straight, you need a clear opportunity to overtake.
"And the longest straight here goes into a tight roundabout section."
Originally published by RacingNews365 —
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