George Russell admits he was greatly surprised for Mercedes to be so fast at the Las Vegas Grand Prix after securing pole position.
Mercedes topped all three practice sessions, with Lewis Hamilton quickest on Thursday before Russell hit the front for FP3. Having set the quickest time on the first runs in Q3, Russell needed a front wing change after brushing the wall, but still emerged as the last car on track to regain pole position for the first time since the British Grand Prix.
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“Honestly, absolutely not (expected),” Russell said. “It feels incredible to be back on pole. We’ve been so quick all weekend, and I just knew coming into that last Q3 lap, that’s going to be the one that counts.
“It doesn’t matter what’s happened before then. I had a bit of a moment on my first run, and we had to change the front wing. So there was a moment I thought we weren’t going to make the flag. But just so happy, and we’ve got to do some deep diving to understand why it’s been so quick so far this weekend because it was a real surprise.
“Ultimately, you’ve got to put it on the table sometimes, and I felt confident in myself. I knew if I did a clean lap it would be enough to secure a front row. So to get pole position, it’s incredible, but ultimately we’ve had a few good qualifyings recently. We need to convert that into a win now.”
While Russell — who also revealed he slept for 45 minutes before qualifying — is unsure what the catalyst for Mercedes’ form is, he says the race features a number of unknown aspects when it comes to tire performance.
“I think the long run for everybody has been very challenging on the medium and the soft. There’s a lot of graining,” he noted. “We saw the same last year, but I expect the hard tire to be very resilient. But not one single driver has run the hard tire as yet this whole weekend. So you’re going to be learning on the fly.
“It’s going to be probably surviving that first stint and going from there. But here in Vegas, anything can happen. It’s a long race. There was a timely safety car for a number of people last year, and we also saw that last race in Brazil. So, right now I’m very happy, very satisfied, but I’m not taking anything for granted going into tomorrow.”