Las Vegas, Nov 23, 2024
Mercedes continued their excellent showing so far this weekend at the Las Vegas Street Circuit as George Russell roared past Carlos Sainz to grab pole in his last lap of qualifying on Saturday.
The British driver maintained his stance as to why their car has been performing this well as he claimed ‘it was a real surprise’.
“It feels incredible to be back on pole. We’ve been so quick all weekend and I just knew coming into that last Q3 lap, that’s going to be the one that counts. It doesn’t matter what’s happened before then.
“I had a bit of a moment on my first run and we had to change the front wing, so there was a moment when I thought we weren’t going to make the flag. I’m just so happy, and we’ve got to do some deep diving to understand why we’ve been so quick so far this weekend, because it was a real surprise!,” said Russell to F1 TV.
Pushed on where his Q3 confidence had come from, Russell said: “Ultimately you’ve got to put it on the table sometimes. I felt confident in myself – I knew if I did a clean lap, it would be enough to secure a front row, so to get pole position is incredible. Ultimately, we’ve had a few good qualifyings recently – we need to convert that into a win now.”
After surviving a slight collision with the wall at Turn 5, Russell’s lap earned him pole ahead of Sainz, Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc. Russell’s teammate Lewis Hamilton, who topped the opening two practice sessions, is set to start P10 with the seven-time champion having made a mistake on both of his Q3 laps.
Mercedes Team principal Toto Wolff also reflected on the team’s performance in the qualifying session saying that cold conditions suited them.
“The weekend has gone so far very good. The car is quick, and we’ve delivered in all of those sessions. Last year, we weren’t so competitive. I think we qualified third, but in the race we went a bit backwards. So we knew the (cold) temperatures would suit us, but the track layout, not so much. And then everything worked together,” said Toto to F1 TV.(Agency)
