Russell reveals what has caused technical failure in his Mercedes

On the back of a tough qualifying session at the Monaco Grand Prix, Mercedes driver George Russell has revealed what caused the technical failure in his W16 that led to his early elimination in qualifying.

Mercedes endured a very difficult session at Monte Carlo. George Russell lost power and ground to a halt through the tunnel in Q2. Although he was eager to restart his car, he was unable to get going again, and will only line up 14th on the grid tomorrow.

His rookie team mate Andera Kimi Antonelli suffered a big moment in Q2. The Bologna-born driver made a crucial error of clipping the inside wall at the Nouvelle Chicane on his final lap in Q1, which saw him crash into the exit barriers.

Speaking to the media after the qualifying session, Russell has revealed that a bump led to the failure in his car which forced his engine to switch off.

"Yeah it was the cause but it was a bump on the straight, a bump there all weekend. I’ve felt it all weekend, but for whatever reason this time the whole engine switched off when I hit this bump.

“Really disappointing because we got ourselves a bit lost this weekend with the set-up and went back to basics for quali and from Lap 1 I felt back in the game.

"And you know also Kimi stayed with probably the set-up he had in FP3, I went back to something we knew, he was struggling and we were there, and I feel we would have been in the top four, and now we’re not.”

This weekend will see an important change to the regulations, specifically for this event only. During the race, two pit stops will be mandatory.

The aim of the FIA and F1 is to inject more excitement into a race that has often been very linear and predictable, as was very much the case last year.

Expanding on how the race might turn out, Russell expects "crazy strategies" from several rivals given the difficulty with overtaking around the narrow streets of the Principality.

“For sure there’s going to be some crazy strategies, but we qualified 14th, probably should have been top five. So there’s 10 cars between me and where we should have been and people are doing crazy things with the strategy, half will go one way and half will go the other way, therefore whichever one we decide we’re still stuck behind five drivers.

“That’s the problem that people will pit early for clean air but if everyone does it. You’re going to see one of two things, people pitting on lap one, or going really long into the race, so, we do have a small advantage with the two hard tyres, but if we can’t pass there’s not much we can do.”