Russell had a tow on both the first run of Q2 and the first run of Q3. So your observations fit (that he gained just under a tenth from tow vs 2nd run of Q2, and gained nothing compared to 1st run of Q2 which also had the tow). My point is even with his tow, both laps on new soft were 2-3 tenths off the pace of Mclaren/RBR on new soft.avantman wrote: ↑21 May 2025, 10:17Russell didn't have such big tow on his 1st lap in Q3 if he had any. He gained less than a tenth relative to his previous run (2nd run on soft in Q2), and literally nothing compared with his first run in Q2. His run out of the last corner on his 2nd Q3 run on medium was very poor because he had to give a way for cars on fast laps, which is why he lost time on the straight, otherwise he would've been P2 at least. He mentioned that himself after Quali.
And itt's quite strange that you give so much meaning to lap times set in Q1, measuring gaps between Mercedes and Mclaren pace. Not only we all know Max is probably the only driver who is always on it from lap 1 in Q1 coming closer to the limit quicker than other drivers, whereas other take few laps to find their references, Max had a tow worth 0.15s on his first lap in Q1.
well.
Q2 first run (3 tenths off P1) with tow from Verstappen:
Q3 first run (2.6 tenths off P1) with tow from Alonso:
The tow was worth 0.085s,almost a full tenth, when you compare to 2nd run of Q2 without tow.
So tow corrected, the gaps on new soft were closer to 3-4 tenths off the pace.
The only reason that Russell got much closer on the final runs of Q3 is because the medium tire (C5) was a much better qualifying tire than the soft (C6). That medium tire also put Aston comfortably into Q3 when they were closer to P10 on merit. Mercedes went with that strategy because they knew they were far off and had to gamble. Red Bull and Mclaren had the margin to use the worse tire. Ant was out in Q2 on a circuit that he already knew...The race further supports that Mercedes had big problems here.
I don't know what caused Mercedes to be slow here, but they were clearly slow in every situation. Russell was searching for tows on all of his runs (the others were confident enough to run on their own), in Q3 he burned his only set of mediums for the race in a desperate attempt to qualify better and rely on track position. Ant was out in Q2. Draw your own conclusions.