George Russell surprised by Mercedes dominance after earning Aus GP pole

George Russell admitted he did not expect his Mercedes to prove quite as dominant as it did in Melbourne, as the Silver Arrows secured a front-row lockout.

Russell took pole by three tenths from his teammate, Kimi Antonelli, as Mercedes put eight tenths of a second between itself and its nearest challengers over one lap at Albert Park.

George Russell admits Mercedes dominance surprised him after Australian Grand Prix qualifying

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Russell looked favourite for pole throughout the session in Melbourne, lapping quickly throughout Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout in Q3.

Antonelli set the benchmark on a 1:18.811, before Russell crossed the line three tenths faster to earn the first pole position of Formula 1’s new era.

Even though paddock suggestions were that Mercedes would be the fastest team heading into the season, the margin over which the team succeeded over one lap was an unexpected one for the Briton.

“The whole session felt very clean, very tidy, no mistakes, and hust how I wanted to start this weekend really,” Russell said after the session.

“These new cars are very challenging to drive, they’re very difficult to understand, the energy management and all of the other features we’re dealing with.

“But I think we knew as a team, or we thought as a team, we had a really good package beneath us, and it’s been so much hard work from everyone in Brixworth and Brackley to deliver this – but I don’t think we quite thought it was that good. And also, to have Kimi next to me here as well is really great.”

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With a 58-lap race around Albert Park to come, there is no way of knowing how it may unfold as it will be the first time all 22 cars have tried tackling a race distance in representative conditions.

While race simulations took place during testing, this will be the first time in this new era that the new power units will be put to use in full racing conditions, at an ‘energy-hungry’ circuit where battery usage is at a premium.

With that, Russell urged caution about how the race may turn out, as it is a step into the unknown for every team on the grid.

“I think the goal for us right now is to just try and make the finish line because we honestly don’t know what’s going to happen,” he admitted.

“The most simple things that we’ve been dealing with over the past years, such as pit stops, are now really challenging with all the procedures, getting the engine in the right window, the turbo speed spinning enough, the battery not too low but not too high, race starts, we’ve seen our challenge. So, I think the goal for us was just to have a clean weekend.

“Of course we want to win, we want to be on board, we want to dominate the weekend, but it’s a really long season and we need to get through tomorrow and just have a clean race, because at any point you can stumble and that could be the end of your day.”

Additional reporting by Mat Coch

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