Russell: 'Glad it's the last time'

In both FP1 and FP3, George Russell was fastest with his Mercedes. He therefore briefly seemed a contender for pole position in Abu Dhabi, but during qualifying the W14's speed was disappointing again.

In a press briefing with GPBlog.com, Russell says that after FP3 they also thought at Mercedes that they could fight for pole position, but due to a difference in temperature between FP3 and qualifying they were still slower than expected. He does think fourth place is a good representation of where the W14 is now.

Temperature drop when there is first a daytime session and then an evening session. What adds to this is that qualifying is often run with less fuel than free practice. "We expect to make maybe a one-second jump, and we only made six-tenth-jump. So it is something we’ll have to look into," said the Brit.

Like Lewis Hamilton, George Russell is happy that this was the last qualifying with this car. "It's definitely a very challenging car to drive and I think that's just shown with the pace with Lewis and I. I think over the season we're joint on qualifying performances, but we're never the same pace, either on I’m four tenths ahead or he's four-tenths ahead. It just shows how difficult it is to get in the sweet spot."