Russell "gutted to miss out on pole" in debut Mercedes weekend

In one of the most interesting stories of 2020, George Russell got within 0.026 seconds of teammate and polesitter Valtteri Bottas on his debut for Mercedes, and even says he is disappointed to miss out!

Called up at the last minute after Lewis Hamilton's positive COVID-19 test, Russell showed extremely good pace in Friday running and backed that up with a great qualifying session, which saw him reach Q3 for the first time.

After the session he spoke to Sky Sports, saying: "If you told me five days ago that I would be lining up in P2 I would have thought that you was joking but we have been working very well. The guys are fantastic and it helps knowing the guys.

"When we went into FP3 and we had quite a poor session, making mistakes and pushing too hard. I thought I would be knocked out of Q1 and Q2 but I was getting into my groove. I would not lie that I am gutted to miss out on pole by 20 miliseconds."