What "bamboozled" George Russell suspects is behind gap to Kimi Antonelli at F1 Monaco GP

George Russell has been left “bamboozled” by his pace deficit to Mercedes team-mate and Formula 1 title rival Andrea Kimi Antonelli in Monaco Grand Prix qualifying.

Antonelli secured his fourth pole position of the season with a sensational lap to claim his first pole in Monaco, beating Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by just 0.043 seconds with a last-gasp effort in Q3.

In contrast, Russell struggled in the other Mercedes and wound up a disappointing sixth, over four tenths adrift of 19-year-old Antonelli, who has won four of the opening five races so far this season.

Russell admitted to Sky Sports F1 that he is a “a bit bamboozled” by the performance difference with his team-mate.

“I don’t really know what’s going on to be honest,” Russell told media including Crash.net. “It’s clearly something in my driving that’s not helping the car at the moment.

“But that there was there at the start of the year as well and every lap I did… If I look at Melbourne and at least China, until I had my issues, it was P1 every single session and every lap I did was good.

“The last three races have just been nowhere. Even Canada, I was nowhere until the last lap of Q3 of both sessions. So I don’t have an answer to that.”

Russell added: “I went out in FP3 and on my first lap I was four tenths ahead of everybody, and everything felt back to normal. From there on in it’s just not been the same.

“As I say, I really don’t have an answer right now. Until I can make some adaptation, or adjustments, it’s going to continue like this.”

Russell is 43 points behind Antonelli in the championship and faces the very real prospect of seeing that gap grow further on Sunday.

While puzzled by his deficit to Antonelli, Russell suspects it is related to different approaches to their driving styles.

“There’s clearly a difference in driving style between the two of us, which has been there last year as well,” Russell explained.

“But it played into my hands very last year and it clearly is playing into his hands perfectly well this year, but it still doesn’t answer why I was so good at the start of the year and so poor now.

“We need to look at why that is. It’s clear in the data. The difference is how we’re driving has such an impact on the tyres, and he’s just getting the tyres in a nicer window than me and a nicer balance over the course of the lap, and the pace is just coming easier for him. I don’t know why that is.

“I’ve been driving in this manner in my whole career and now, for whatever reason, it’s not working with this car,” he continued.

“Last year’s car, Kimi was trying to drive my way and it was also not working for him. It’s no excuse it’s just a reality and I need to work with the team to adjust my driving to compensate these new tyres, these new cars, or I need to find a different set up that works for me. But it’s not clicking right now.”