Russell after disappointing sprint qualifying: 'My heart didn't sink'

George Russell did not have a good sprint shootout. The Briton did not make it through the effective Q2, leaving him stuck in 11th place. During the session, rain started to fall. Russel, by his own admission, fell victim to the frenzy caused by the weather change.

Russell: 'That's why I couldn't set a good time'

The Formula 1 drivers went out en masse at the same time during SO2 when it started to rain. "I suppose, one lap in Q2, we tried sending it as early as we could, and then obviously got stuck behind in 12 cars, where I was just standing a bit late, so we had lost the tyre temperature, and then, it was close, one more attempt and you're four or five positions higher, and it's just a shame to be on the bottom end of that," Russell told F1TV afterwards.

A second attempt to set a better lap proved in vain for Russell, by then it was raining too hard. "Well, I wouldn't say it sunk. It's just a little bit of frustration after the first lap. It was so close getting into Q3, and just challenging conditions, with the rain falling now, that's what would have happened in Q3."

Despite the disappointing result in sprint qualifying, the Mercedes driver does hope to do better on Saturday. "As I said, you've got the sprint race tomorrow, so it's, you know, you've got to pick up some positions and then got another chance in qualifying tomorrow afternoon."