George Russell believes a Mercedes error denied him Sao Paulo GP pole after the team instructed him to abandon a promising final lap in wet qualifying at Interlagos. The British driver will start seventh on Sunday because of a five-place grid penalty for a new internal combustion engine, but the manner of his qualifying defeat to Lando Norris left him frustrated.
Late call and changing conditions
Russell had been four tenths of a second quicker than Norris after the first Q3 runs and was on another strong lap when he caught the Williams of Alex Albon. Mercedes told him to back off, expecting him to have time for one more push lap. Instead, the rain worsened and no driver improved in the remaining seven minutes.
On team radio, Russell questioned the instruction and argued he could have beaten Norris’s time even with the delay behind Albon. The McLaren driver took pole by two tenths of a second.
Mixed views on what might have been
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff described the call as a difficult 50-50 decision and said he did not think Russell would have had enough to take pole given the time lost behind Albon. Sky Sports pundits Karun Chandhok and Bernie Collins were also split. Chandhok felt Russell would have lost more time following Albon, while Collins argued that his fastest first and second sectors combined with Albon’s fastest third sector would have been enough for pole.
Russell, who was excused from media duties after the previous race in Mexico, said he needed to understand how the miscommunication occurred and why the team got the call wrong. He stressed that his engineer was relaying information from multiple sources and that the decision should not be pinned on one individual.
Grid penalty and championship context
Because of the engine penalty, Russell would not have started from pole regardless. He will line up seventh, with team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who was crowned world champion at the Mexico City Grand Prix, qualifying third.
Russell said he took some encouragement from his pace in the wet, where he felt more confident than in the dry, but the missed opportunity remained painful. The result adds to a challenging season for him alongside Antonelli’s title success.
