George Russell’s tyres were “like a balloon” after overheating in Saudi Arabian GP

George Russell blamed overheating for his lack of pace in the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Despite qualifying third on the grid, Russell ultimately finished the race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in fifth.

Russell struggled with his tyres during the second stint of the race after switching to the hards on Lap 21.

The Mercedes driver would lose out to Charles Leclerc into Turn 1 on Lap 38.

Just three laps later, he was overtaken by McLaren’s Lando Norris.

While it continued Russell’s consistent start to the year, never failing to finish outside the top five, it was damage limitation for the British driver.

Reflecting on the race in Saudi Arabia, Russell told Sky Sports: “It was all about the tyres. They were massively overheating. I was pushing hard to stay with Max at the beginning of the second stint but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold on. We fell off that cliff towards the end.

“I was dropping a second a lap in the last 15 laps. To be fair, we didn’t have the past and even if I had managed more I would have still come home P5. We know that is a bit of a weakness with our car at the moment.

“Coming home P5 on a bad day - we will take it but we need to try and improve it quickly.”

Mercedes need to understand tyre woes

Out of the leading seven cars from the top four teams, Russell seemed the only one to encounter tyre troubles.

Teammate Kimi Antonelli closed to within eight seconds by the end of the race as he fended off Lewis Hamilton behind.

Given that Bahrain is traditionally a challenging track for tyre wear, Russell was surprised to have struggled in Jeddah.

“It’s more about how fast we’re going through these corners,” Russell explained. “For whatever reason we’re generating more temperature than our rivals.

“Suddenly you get to a point where the tyres are like a balloon. We had blistering on the front, blistering at the rear, and then suddenly you’ve got no grip from the tyres.

“We need to understand why Bahrain was so positive because that’s also an overheating track but a different type of overheating to what you experience here in Jeddah.

“We probably had higher hopes for the race today than we had for Bahrain but it turned out the opposite. Something to understand.”