Russell was left "slightly disappointed" after Monza qualifying
Having topped the opening qualifying segment on Pirelli's mediums, George Russell ended up in a disappointing sixth place in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix.
Mercedes drivers George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli looked very competitive in the first two segments of qualifying, but they slightly struggled to extract the best performance on Pirelli’s soft tyres in Q3.
With margins having been so tight in qualifying, Russell ended up only sixth fastest, while Kimi Antonelli, who has an own exhibition in the Monza fan zone, took seventh. However, they will both benefit from Hamilton’s penalty.
Commenting on qualifying, Russell explained: "We come away from today slightly disappointed with where we qualified.
"There was a miscommunication as to what tyre to run in Q3 but ultimately, we didn’t do the job in that final segment.
"We were fastest in Q1 on the medium and Kimi was second quickest in Q2 on the soft, so we know that there was likely more that we could have achieved than P6 and P7 in the final order.
"With grid penalties applied, we start P5 tomorrow so let’s see what we can do. With the low downforce wings that everyone runs, it is hard to overtake here.
"Ferrari look very quick in a straight-line too and we have Charles starting just in front of us," Russell continued.
"We will therefore need to take any opportunities that come our way if we are able to move forward. I hope we can make progress.”
