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After crashing in the final moments of United States Grand Prix Qualifying, George Russell says “the thing just went on me and caught me by surprise”.
After qualifying in P2 for the United States Grand Prix Sprint Race on Friday, on Saturday George Russell had a difficult time while qualifying for the main race.
The Briton crashed into the barrier in the final moments of quali, and will start the race from P6. Afterwards he tried to explain what happened.
“It was a really great lap until turn 12,” the Briton told Sky Sports F1.
“I was four and a half tenths up, then lost it a bit at turn 12, similar to Lewis yesterday, then lost loads of lap time.
“I was still probably a tenth or so quicker than my previous lap and then I went into the penultimate corner, turned in and then the thing just went on me and caught me by surprise.
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“Maybe I was over-pushing, but just pretty disappointed with the damage caused to the car and all the work that’s going to have to go on tonight.”
George added the team is still not sure why they performed so well on Friday, but not on Saturday.
“I’m a little bit confused why yesterday Lewis and I were both in the fight for pole and today we were nowhere.
“The car didn’t feel as put together, but the pace was coming easily yesterday. Today it just was not.
“We don’t have the answers because we keep finding ourselves in this position. It is how the car is interacting with the tyres.
“The temperature, small changes; the wind, small changes. But it has been the story of the season, old upgrades, new upgrades. Either we’re there or we’re half a second, six tenths off.
“It just seems like such a theme at the moment that when we find the sweet spot, we’ve got a car that’s capable of pole positions and race wins, when we can’t find that sweet spot we’re nowhere.
“So I mean, apologies for the team, there’s been so much hard work bringing these upgrades and it’s really disappointing from my side for the outcome.”
Asked whether he will have to start the race from the pit lane, due to damage to his car, but he said he doesn’t believe so.
“It shouldn’t. But there’s a lot of damage, so I don’t know what’s going to happen.
“But it’s obviously not the day we needed,” Russell concluded.
