After a mistake on his final lap in qualifying for the Formula One Turkish Grand Prix, George Russell felt “disappointed in myself.”
Russell aimed to improve after a rainy afternoon left the track damp for the start of qualifying at Istanbul Park. Russell had starred in damp conditions to place second on the grid at Spa and third in Sochi.
Russell qualified for Q2, but an error on his penultimate lap cost him time, putting him in 13th place on the grid.
Russell believed he should have been “well inside of Q3” with his final lap time, having missed Lando Norris’s cut-off time in 10th place by four tenths.
“It’s very frustrating because that lap would have probably been good enough for P5, a good six or seven tenths inside the Q3 cutoff,” Russell said when asked about his qualifying by Motorsport.com at Istanbul Park.
“I was really pushing my limits and went over it twice today, which is two too many mistakes on my behalf.
“I’m a bit disappointed in myself, you know, we need these conditions to offer these opportunities. Today was an opportunity and I missed out.”
Russell admitted that it was “really difficult” for drivers to judge where they could and really can not push in the wet conditions after qualifying on slicks, but he still believed he could have given Williams another good performance.
“All the drivers are in the same situation, and it’s where I sort of pride myself to try and make a bit of a difference,” Russell said.
“Today we had the opportunity, and we were one corner short of having another one of those special Saturdays.”
Russell thought Williams improved from his Friday performance, and while he doubted a repeat of the Spa or Sochi results would have been possible, he was unhappy not to be starting higher up the grid.
“The pace of the car was not there yesterday we were very slow, but today we got it fired up in these difficult conditions, [could have] made the most of it,” Russell said.
“But here we are, starting P13 tomorrow rather than potentially inside the top 10.
“Starting inside the top 10, if you make a good start you can easily find yourself top eight, top seven, after the first lap everything’s different.
“With a stellar first lap tomorrow we’ll be top 10 at best, and with the inherent car pace, it’s not enough.
“It’ll be a long race tomorrow, I don’t know if anybody knows what the correct strategy will be so it’ll be interesting.”
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