Russell puzzled by top speed deficit to Antonelli, McLarens

George Russell says he has been hampered by a straight-line speed deficit to other Mercedes-powered cars after qualifying fourth at the British Grand Prix.

Kimi Antonelli won the Sprint early on Saturday, and the championship leader then took pole position in qualifying, while Russell finished fourth on both occasions. After finishing nearly 0.4s adrift of his teammate, Russell says there is an ongoing issue with his top speed that Mercedes is struggling to resolve.

“There was no damage but all weekend we've been losing lots of time in the straights,” Russell said. “Yesterday in SQ3 it was almost three tenths I lost in the straights. Again, today qualifying, if you're looking at the speed traps, it's 3kph down in the middle sector, 6kph down in the last sector compared to my teammate and compared to the McLaren cars.

“The team are working super hard to understand why that is. We thought we found the problem this morning and we thought the brakes were locking on but we're not convinced that's the issue. But it just compounds everything when you get into a session knowing you're at a bit of a disadvantage.”

Although Russell admits he would have struggled to fight with Lewis Hamilton in Sprint qualifying, he says the restriction hampered his ability to be in the mix for pole position on Saturday.

“The deployment looks OK. I'm just offset on speed in the straight. It just looks like I'm running more of a draggier car, if you look at the speed trace of qualifying yesterday and you look at the speed traps from today, it's the same. I wouldn't have been on pole, for sure, but I definitely would have been higher up yesterday, and I think in the fight yesterday.

“Today, for pole in qualifying, maybe run one of Q3, I'd have been at the front and then the mindset changes. But I've just sort of felt on the back foot coming into today and I'll do my best tomorrow to get on the podium.”