F1 | Mercedes on pole, but remains unpredictable: the race will provide answers

George Russell celebrated the second pole position of his career with great enthusiasm. When all the drivers who took part in Q3 passed under the checkered flag in the Mercedes garage they breathed a sigh of relief: the conquest of pole (given for certain after the FP3 session) suddenly seemed to want to slip out of hand.

In the last assault Russell, despite the new tyres, did not improve on his previous time obtained with used tyres. Luckily for George, the lap had been very good, and it proved enough to secure him pole position. Russell really needed everything, because the margin over Max Verstappen was nil, zero thousandths. The world championship leader paid for having achieved the same time as his opponent five minutes later.

That Mercedes would be in contention for pole position became clear in the FP3 session, when Lewis Hamilton set an impressive time, edging out four tenths of a second from Verstappen and Russell. “Lewis was flying – explained Russell – and at that point I went to look at his data to find out what he was doing differently. I have to say that this helped me a lot before qualifying.” The definitive confirmation came in Q2, when the two Mercedes moved to the top of the standings with times that turned out to be faster than pole.

“I think my first lap in Q3 on used tires was really good – confirmed Russell – but at the same time I was sure that I would have dropped by three or four tenths with new tyres”. This is what Verstappen and the two McLarens did, because few in the rest of the group improved the times of the first run. “For some reason things didn’t go as expected – added George – but fortunately the time on the first attempt was good”. Hamilton instead sank into seventh place. “It’s a shame not to have blocked out the entire front row – commented head of engineering Andrew Shovlin – but it’s particularly disappointing for Lewis, given that he had been very strong all weekend”.

“We don’t know what didn’t work for him – reiterated Toto Wolff – the tire temperatures were within a good window, Lewis drove well but for some reason in the end things didn’t go as we expected. That’s why the result is a little bittersweet.” “The conditions were excellent – ​​reiterated a very disappointed Hamilton – but the tires didn’t work for the whole session, I had no grip. In FP3 I had half a second ahead and this margin suddenly disappeared.” The W15, even on its best day, remains an unpredictable car. The times obtained in Q2 confirmed a perfect adaptation to the track conditions, but ten minutes later in the Mercedes garage they risked mockery.

Also for this reason Wolff, responding to expectations about the race, kept a low profile. “One swallow does not make a summer, we are obviously happy with the result also because in the last race weekends we have introduced many new features on the single-seaters. But confirmations are needed, Montreal is a track with many medium-speed corners, as well as new asphalt; therefore, we will have to verify the progress made in other scenarios as well, I believe that in Barcelona everything will be clearer.”

In the meantime, however, there is a race to be held, a race in which Russell will start in front of everyone. “At what point? The car, guys, is fast – explained George – we were always at the top of the charts all weekend, so I feel like I can play it. But there are many question marks, with the new asphalt we all rode very little, we will see how the strategies will work and how the tires will behave.”