George Russell was very close to not being able to put in a final fast lap at the end of Q1. A lot of drivers in front of him left the pit lane rather slowly, to do a slow out-lap as well. As a result, Russell was almost too late across the start-finish line.
Guidelines
Afterwards, it became clear why many drivers were so slow. Admittedly, they had been given the margins for an out-lap by race control. But drivers who adhered to this, had a disadvantage when warming up their tires. At least that is what Lewis Hamilton says in a press release from his team Mercedes.
According to the former world champion - who did not drive too slow himself - this has to be talked about. "It was a confusing session out there as we had been given a delta time to respect in qualifying for the out laps - and not everybody was doing so."
Steps made
Mercedes showed in Barcelona that steps have been made. For a while, the team seemed to have a chance at pole, but Russell and Hamilton showed that the updates were working. Mercedes was especially less bothered by porpoising.