Where George Russell is suffering compared to Kimi Antonelli at Silverstone

George Russell has revealed where he is losing time to team-mate Kimi Antonelli, after falling three-tenths and three places behind in qualifying for the British Grand Prix. 

Russell has struggled to match Antonelli's pace at any part of the Silverstone weekend thus far. After watching the Italian qualify on the front row for the sprint and convert that into a race win, things only got worse in qualifying on Saturday afternoon. 

A lockup into Luffield in Q1 saw the Briton take a trip through the gravel, but even after his front wing was repaired, Russell claimed to have suffered a lack of straight-line pace compared to the championship leader.

“No, there was no damage, but all weekend we've been losing lots of time in the straights," he said, when asked about the off. 

"Yesterday in Q3, it was almost three-tenths that I lost in the straights. Again, today in qualifying, you look at the speed traps, it's 3k down in the middle sector, and 6k down in the last sector compared to my team-mate 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 going into the session knowing you're at a bit of a disadvantage.”

Given how complicated the modern power units are, it is often the case that a small fault will cause problems elsewhere, creating a downwards spiral that is tough to escape.

Asked if this made it more difficult to unpick what could be wrong, he added: “I'm not sure, to be honest. 

"The deployment looks okay, I'm just offset on speed on the straight. It just looks like I'm running a more draggy 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.

“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 yeah, I'll do my best tomorrow to get on the podium.”