George Russell blasts ‘sh*tshow’ as Mercedes flop in Spa sprint qualifying

George Russell brandished his and the team’s performance a “sh*tshow” as he stumbled out of SQ3 in 10th.

It was a disastrous session for the Brit as a lock-up cost not only Russell but his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Russell braked hard going into La Source and as he swerved back onto the track, he did so in the path of Hamilton and the pair were lucky to avoid contact.

While the lock-up was driver error, the decision to send both cars out so closely was made by the team with the incident leading to Hamilton being on Russell’s gearbox up Eau Rouge.

The result was an embarrassing end to their session. Russell in P10 and Hamilton down from his P4 yesterday to P7.

‘Sh*tshow’ for George Russell who is on a ‘downward spiral’

Speaking over the team radio, Russell declared it a “sh*tshow.”

“Don’t really know what to say,” Russell said. “That was a sh*tshow from start to finish, especially my side.”

Hamilton meanwhile, was to rue what could have been.

“That could have been so much better, managed better,” he told race engineer Peter Bonnington.

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after the session, Russell described it as a “total mess from start to finish.

“I was surprised I got to Q3 because so many mistakes on my side,” he said. “And then a bit of miscommunication at the end.

“I think we were stressing about the clock finish and I think we had more time on the clock than we expected. I was too close to the car in front and Lewis was too close to me so bad, bad session.

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“This weekend has just not being going to plan. I hope we can make a bit of recovery in the races. [I am] definitely confident we will be quicker in the races but, so far, single lap qualifiers have been rubbish.

“You get into this bad rhythm and you can’t build from it. It started in qualifying yesterday. Q1 I felt good then Q2, Q3 I was just on a downward spiral and I was hoping to make amends today which hasn’t happened.

“It’s just really not clicking at the moment. We need to work on it, need to understand because definitely [we have] got potential but as I said we just need to get into a better groove.”