In what was a very tough session for Mercedes at the rain soaked Imola circuit, both drivers failed to progress to Q3 and even struggled to make it out of Q1, with Lewis Hamilton only managing a time 0.004s faster than Tsunoda in the first session. 

Mercedes' issues in qualifying were compounded by what Russell calls "a bit of a shame" as the team were caught out by the timing of red flags and rain showers. 

Russell admits Mercedes are struggling with tyre warmup compared to those around them, with the team needing to alternate between fast and slow laps to maximise their performance. 

"We always struggle a little bit to get the temperature into the tyre and we are always seemingly taking a bigger jump from the second lap," Russell said following his Q2 exit. 

"We saw it in Australia as well when we compared to the Alpines and the McLarens, they were a first lap qualifier and we had to do it on the third lap or even the fifth lap, doing the fast slow fast consecutive sequence."

Continuing to discuss the sequence of events which led to the team missing out on Q3, Russell acknowledged the red flags caused by Carlos Sainz prevented them from progressing. 

"It was a bit of a shame with how the red flags panned out today, but obviously, yeah if there is a weekend to not be where we wanna be, sprint weekend is the one to do it.

"Not ideal, but we've got a chance to work up those positions tomorrow."

Despite his positive outlook, Russell admits that due to the shorter nature of the sprint race Mercedes may not be able to make use of their advantage compared to those around them. 

On the other side of the Mercedes garage, 7-time champion Lewis Hamilton seemed downbeat following his less than ideal qualifying which he admits "wasn't a great session". 

"Naturally it's disappointing. You come here with optimism and everyone's working really hard at the factory and things just don't come together, yeah it's disappointing," he said.

"I think we underperformed as a team today. There were things we should have done that we didn't do.

"Anyways, we'll work as hard as we can to move up in the sprint race. It's going to be a difficult race but hopefully tomorrow is better weather wise and who knows maybe we can move forwards." 

Hamilton continued to say the team will work to improve, albeit sounding disheartened by his car's lack of pace. 

"Yeah, we'll just keep working hard. Each weekend is a rescue, so..."