George Russell tells Charles Leclerc rivals ‘screwed up Q3’

George Russell and Charles Leclerc discussed the rapid one-lap pace displayed by Mercedes in qualifying following the Australian Grand Prix.

In the cooldown room, Russell told Leclerc that he believes Mercedes’ rivals, Ferrari included, “screwed up” in Q3, which allowed Mercedes to lock out the front row by an eye-watering margin.

George Russell says rivals ‘screwed up Q3’ after Mercedes front-row lockout

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Mercedes converted that into a one-two result on Sunday to start F1 2026 in perfect fashion. But, it was far from a stroll to the finish line.

Testing had suggested that Ferrari had a potent weapon in its armoury, in the form of lightening-fast race starts. Leclerc duly went from P4 on the Melbourne grid to leading from Russell out of Turn 1.

Leclerc asked Russell if he had problems with the battery at the start.

Russell confirmed: “We both started on the grid zero per cent battery,” both being he and teammate Kimi Antonelli.

Leclerc said his battery only had “a little bit more” charge than that, despite that rapid launch.

Russell and Leclerc traded P1 throughout the opening laps, though a key turning point came when the Virtual Safety Car was deployed to cover Isack Hadjar’s stricken Red Bull.

Mercedes pitted its drivers, but Ferrari left Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton out.

All four drivers did a one-stop, but, fresher tyres was not enough to bring Leclerc or Hamilton back into the fight with Mercedes.

Russell took the win three seconds ahead of Antonelli, and 15.5 clear of Leclerc. It was not the kind of dominance from Mercedes which some had feared was coming.

“You guys weren’t slow. You were not slow,” Russell said towards Leclerc.

It is safe to say that Leclerc took that statement from Russell with a degree of scepticism.

With a smile, Leclerc replied: “But, yesterday guys…”

Russell explained, rather bluntly, what he believed went wrong for Ferrari, and the wider pack for that matter.

“I think you guys screwed up Q3,” Russell theorised, “because nobody really improved.”

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Leclerc was asked during the post-race press conference whether he was ‘very pleased’ with Ferrari’s pace compared to Mercedes.

While cutting that down to size a little bit, Leclerc was feeling good about Ferrari’s level of competitiveness.

“Very pleased is maybe a big word, but I am positively surprised for sure.

“After qualifying yesterday, I think yesterday for sure we were not in our optimum window, but we are still very, very far off the Mercedes in qualifying.

“In the race, though, we seem to be closer.

“Doesn’t mean we are the fastest car, I don’t think we were, but we are a bit more reasonably behind.

“So yeah, lots of work to be done, and I think this championship anyway will be won by development and upgrades, and for that we need to be on it.”

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