George Russell rues missed pole position in Hungary in windy qualifying

Mercedes Formula 1 driver George Russell believes a mistake on his final lap cost him pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris started qualifying as the overwhelming favourites based on their pace in practice, with Mercedes being only the third or fourth-fastest team in the build-up to the pole-deciding session.

However, light rain in Q2 and a change in the wind direction in Q3 completely altered the competitive picture, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc snatching pole position from the McLarens in a surprise end to the session.

Russell ended up fourth in the top Mercedes, just 0.053s down on Leclerc, in a closely-fought qualifying session where the top 10 drivers were separated by just 0.543s.

Asked if a moment at Turn 14 cost him pole position, the Briton replied: “Yes, I think I did.”

Pressed further as to how much time he lost there, he said: “Three tenths”.

He added: “The wind had shifted a lot, the wind was gustier. That corner was very different compared to Q2, but I should have reacted. 

“I knew the wind was different and I just had much less downforce in this corner. But that's the reality, I should have reacted and that's what cost me today.

“But you speak with every driver, they'll give you a reason of why they missed pole, because no one did their personal best in Q3."

While disappointed to miss out on a front row start, Russell admitted that the results in Q3 were an outlier due to inferior track conditions.

For instance, Leclerc’s pole time of 1m15.372s was significantly slower than Norris’ 1m14.890s effort with which he topped Q2.

“Q3 was a messy session,” he said. “We took the smallest step backwards from Q2, I was only a tenth slower than Q2. Charles was two tenths slower, Fernando was two tenths slower, McLaren was six tenths slower.

“I'm not going to get carried away with that Q3 performance, because for the rest of the weekend it hasn't been straightforward. Of course, Kimi was also out in Q2 and it's not been plain sailing."

Mercedes reverted to a previous-spec rear suspension in Hungary, having felt that some of the newer parts it had introduced in recent races were responsible for its competitive slide.

The Brackley-based squad had since performed better over the weekend, although teammate Kimi Antonelli could only manage 15th at the end of a scrappy session.

Asked why the team couldn’t identify the suspension as the root cause of its troubles in previous races, Russell said: "I think Formula 1 is so complex because even if you have the exact same car, one circuit you're quick, one circuit you're slow, and there's different reasons why there's this. 

“And you sometimes need to give an upgrade, a real test on different types of circuits, different types of conditions to categorically say this is why we are good or this is why we are bad. Barcelona, Imola, they were all very hot race weekends. We believe that was our root cause and it still is a big factor of our limitation. But clearly in Spa, we were very underwhelming and clearly the suspension was not an upgrade."

Russell is unsure if Mercedes will have a stronger second half of the season based on the performance he has seen so far with the old suspension system in Hungary.

"I don't know. It's definitely been a bit challenging recently,” he admitted. “I haven't felt awfully confident in the car recently. Of course, today P4 is sort of back in our normal position.

“But yeah, the fact is McLaren underperformed in Q3 all weekend, bar that session they were seven tenths ahead of everyone, four tenths ahead of McLaren. So they're going to still be the runaway force."