"Disastrous day," claims Russell after tough Imola race for Mercedes
Having run in third for the opening laps at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Mercedes driver George Russell quickly chewed through his medium tyres, wich prompted the Briton to urge his team to improve the W16's tyre management.
Mercedes driver George Russell displayed eye-catching pace in qualifying, and a smart move to complete his last push lap in Q3 on Pirelli's mediums enabled him to fight for pole position.
Beating McLaren's Lando Norris, the Briton ended up third on the grid. However, he lost a lot of tyre life fighting Norris at the start, and pitted very early as a result.
He endured then some misfortune with the virtual safety car, but he recovered some places by not stopping under the late Safety Car. However, being on older tyres, his former team-mate Lewis Hamilton picked him off, and he ultimately finished the Imola round in P7.
His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli struggled for pace in qualifying, ending up only 13th on the grid on home turf. While he displayed better race pace, he stopped on track with a throttle problem which triggered a long safety car interruption.
"I made a great start and I was hoping Oscar was going to move over slightly just to block Max in but didn't and then it was just downhill from there Disastrous day, I had no pace and I was glad to see the chequered flag."
"We knew it was going to be challenging – we've always been slow when it's hot out there and today it was hot," he said.
"Right now I don't have any answers, it was in terms of pace probably the worst day we've had as a team in a couple of years. We need to go back to the drawing board."
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) May 19, 2025
Reflecting on Mercedes' struggles, Russell continued: "With a relatively high track temperature, we were suffering from overheating on the rear axle. It was therefore tough to keep the tyres in the right window and the pace reflected that. We couldn’t match the leaders’ pace, so it was very much damage limitation.
"We will take the learnings from this weekend and move quickly on to Monaco. I am looking forward to getting out on track there. We’ve been good and consistent in qualifying this season with strong single laps and this will help next week.
"Monaco is one of these races where a lot depends on Saturday and I am confident in how we can perform there," Russell concluded.
