F1 | Monaco GP | George Russell on P6: "This is by far the hardest Monaco I´ve ever experienced"
The british driver will start tomorrow´s race p6 ahead of Fernando Alonso and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. However, the weekend hasn´t been a walk in the park...
Another strong result for George Russell who set the 6th fastest time after a chaotic Q3 today in Monaco. The young brit will start ahead of Fernando Alonso and teammate Lewis Hamilton one of the affected drivers by the red flag that ended the session abruptly.
Speaking to the press after qualifying, he explained “P6 is not a result to be celebrating. But I think when you look at it objectively there´s no reason for us to be any higher. We´ve really struggled with compliance of the car; it's been really stiff this weekend.
"Following Barcelona our strengths were straight-line speed and the high-speed corners [but there is none here]. I was really pleased with the lap. Obviously there was a red flag but I was still four tenths up on Lewis and Fernando... so that was promising.”
Monaco has proved over the years to be one of the most challenging tracks of the calendar and with this new generation of cars the challenge seems even greater compared to the difficult Williams cars Russell was in for three seasons.
He said: “This is by far the hardest Monaco I´ve ever experienced; I was in one of the most challenging cars there was to drive in recent times. I think it´s not been easy for everybody. I think it´s been a step worse compared to the previous era of cars, but there is certainly teams that seem to be more on top of it. Kudos to Ferrari, they seem to be very good over the bumps. We´ve seen in Imola they were smashing those kerbs and I think it pays dividends in these [kind of] circuits."
About his best lap, he admitted he clipped the barrier turning into the Nouvelle chicane: “On my quickest lap, I actually hit the wall on the left of turn 10, after the tunnel. it´s little bit tough for all of us as a team when you feel like you've kind of optimised it and you come home P6."
On the possibility of a rainy race he said: “I think the only two people who wouldn't want rain are on the front row and fact is nobody knows about wet tires.
We don´t do many laps on them; the tyres might last a full race or only 15, 20 laps. That offers an opportunity for us. Even if P6 is not the best place to be on a day like that.
When asked about porpoising hurting his back, he said: “It´s not gonna be pleasant, to be honest. FP1 when we didn´t have the car at its softest, it was a real challenge for both Lewis and I. It´s tough, but you have got to suck it up with it; that´s all you can do.”
