F1 | Sakhir GP | Russell: "I'm a bit gutted to miss out on pole by 20 milliseconds"
After all the hype created over the weekend British driver George Russell, who missed out on the maiden pole by just 20 milli seconds, was gutted after the Qualifying session at Sakhir GP, Bahrain
George Russell whose replacing this year’s crowned world champion Lewis Hamilton, after the crowned champion has been tested positive for the Covid-19, did an amazing job of locking out the front row grid with the Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who only beat the British sensation by just 0.026 of a second.
Russell was gutted to not finish ahead of the Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas even though he is happy to be on the front row but he was all up for scoring the pole in his maiden Qualifying with the world champions.
“Obviously, I'm a bit gutted to miss out on pole by 20 milliseconds, but if you'd told me last week that I'd be qualifying P2 on the grid, I wouldn't have believed you. I've got nobody in front of me tomorrow, which I've not experienced for a long time.”
Really happy to be lining up P2 but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t gutted to miss pole by just 20 milliseconds!
— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) December 5, 2020
Congrats to @ValtteriBottas and thanks to @MercedesAMGF1 for the great car. Front row lockout 🤜🤛 pic.twitter.com/N0sZBoUtIM
George Russell considered this as an achievement to be with in 0.026s of Bottas, as over the years the Finn has been very close to the seven times world champion, Lewis Hamilton.
“Valtteri has pushed Lewis a huge amount in qualifying over the years, so I'm really pleased to have finished Q3 just behind him and to be on the front row for tomorrow.” said George Russell.
George added its been hectic last two days with so much going around and fitting himself in the Lewis’s Mercedes wasn’t so easy for him.
“It's been incredibly intense with so much to learn and such a different way of driving in this car. I tried a lot of things in FP3, which didn't go well at all. After final practice, I'd have been happy to just get through to Q3, so I was a bit nervous heading into qualifying. But I managed to get in the groove and was getting better and better every lap.”
Furthermore, George Russell added that he is not prepared for tomorrow as he has been driving at the back of the grid for last couple of years and he is not familiar with the leading the pack making the start so up the grid.
“It's going to be a really tricky race on such a short track layout, but we're in a good position starting on the Mediums. I'll give it my all and see what I can do.”
