Russell suffers heavy elimination but there's a reason behind it

18:25, 25 Jul

byTobia Elia

George Russell gave an immediate reaction to his bitter SQ2 elimination, which will see him start tomorrow’s sprint race from 13th on the grid.

Mercedes hopes to quickly put Friday at Spa behind them, after a disastrous final result for both drivers—somewhat unexpected, even though the Belgian circuit wasn’t exactly the best track on paper for the W16’s characteristics.

While Kimi Antonelli ended up in 20th and last place after a bizarre spin in SQ1, George Russell just managed to make it through SQ2, ultimately finishing in a disappointing 13th position.

George Russell

Russell suffered damage on his car

'' We’ve had the pace all day. In Q1 I ran over all of that gravel when Kimi went off,'' the Brit explained after qualifying.

''For the rest of that lap, it felt terrible, the lap after it felt terrible, and then my SQ2 lap felt terrible.''

Russell then pointed out that the reason for his elimination was due to damage sustained on his W16: ''We saw some damage on the car.''

''We need to see if that’s the reason because obviously it’s a big shock to be out in Q2, and obviously the gap was so big. I’m sure there’s a reason for it."

The English driver will therefore start just behind Yuki Tsunoda, who himself delivered another disappointing qualifying and was once again miles behind teammate Max Verstappen.