BARCELONA, Spain -- George Russell has said he went “back to basics” and felt more like his “old self again” after claiming what could be a season-reviving pole position at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
Russell has not won a grand prix since March’s season opener in Australia and has slipped 68 points behind Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli in the title race.
Russell claimed sprint pole, sprint victory and grand prix pole two races ago in Canada, only to retire from the lead of the race with a car issue, before finishing out of the points in Monaco a week ago -- those two retirements and Antonelli’s wins gave the Italian teen an unanswered 50 point championship game.
He put himself in the best place to start a fightback on Sunday, qualifying just 0.064 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, while Antonelli will start third.
“Nice to feel the groove again,” Russell said on the radio to Mercedes after the lap.
“It’s been a great weekend so far,” he added after the session. “I kind of feel like my old self again, where every lap I’m doing my job, always fighting those top positions. Obviously, for the last few races, for numerous reasons, haven’t quite been on our side, but I came in this weekend with just a clean slate, felt good and, yeah, just great to be on pole.”
When asked if he had changed anything in particular, Russell suggested he had gone his own way on set-up rather than looking at the other car.
“Car set-up, mentality, just going back to basics really,” he said in the news conference for the top three qualifiers. “And, you know, these cars are so complicated, the tyres are complicated, the power units are complicated, and it’s challenging to get on top of things.
“And, you know, especially when I’ve got a guy like this [Antonelli] next to me who’s been performing so well, you know, you’re trying to constantly improve, and I think that, you know, doing some copy-pasting [with strategy] probably really put me on the back foot. So, as I said, this weekend I’ve just gone in my own direction and that’s what I’ve done in the past for the last few years, and really glad to see it paying off.”
Runaway championship leader Antonelli, who took a stunning pole a week ago in Monaco, said he did not feel at one with his car.
“To be fair, not really happy,” Antonelli said of his qualifying performance. “Just struggling with the feeling of the car, very low grip here, and just been attacking a bit too much corners. And yeah, in the last lap I lost basically everything in the last sector, a couple of big slides and tyre just went away from me.
“So definitely was not the best performance, but long run was good, so looking forward to that for tomorrow and hopefully we will have the same kind of pace.”
