How George Russell turned low confidence into Dutch GP Sprint pole

ZANDVOORT – George Russell’s confidence wasn’t high coming to Zandvoort, but a unique approach to the Dutch GP weekend has seen him start brightly, with pole position for the Sprint race.

The British driver’s championship hopes have brightened a little, with Russell taking pole position for the Sprint race at a track at which overtaking can be difficult.

How George Russell rediscovered his confidence at the Dutch GP

While Kimi Antonelli was fastest in the one and only practice session ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, it was Russell who came out on top in Sprint Qualifying as the Italian suffered damage to his Mercedes car due to a mistake early in the session.

With Antonelli compromised by a loss of downforce from the floor on his W17, Russell capitalised on the mistake to see off a stern challenge from McLaren’s Lando Norris to set the fastest time of the session by just four-hundredths of a second.

With Antonelli taking fifth, the advantage for Russell is that, with track position, he could close in some of his teammate’s 59-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship.

It’s been a tricky run of late for Russell, whose retirement from the Belgian Grand Prix on the opening lap was followed by a water pump issue in qualifying in Budapest that led to a seventh-place grid slot, before a technical issue at the start saw him fall to the back before a great recovery drive back to seventh.

Having bounced back from the disappointment by kicking off the second half of the season with such a strong showing in the first competitive session, Russell welcomed the return to the top.

“It’s been a little while since I’ve been top of the timesheets in any session. To be honest, I can’t even remember the last time!” he said.

“So it’s good to remind myself I’ve still got it and haven’t forgotten how to drive.

“The break came at a good point. Of course, it’s only for the Sprint session, I’ve still got the job to do tomorrow.

“The main qualifying is going to be the key one, and McLaren looked really fast.

“Ferrari looked quick. It’s been a real surprise to us as a team these past couple of races. But yeah, we’re in a good spot.”

Given the travails he has encountered through the middle part of the season, with some technical issues exacerbated by some subdued performances, Russell revealed that he’s viewing the resumption of the season as a blank sheet of paper, mentally.

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“I’ve got to be honest, I came into this weekend with a real open mind because I had no idea how it was going to go,” he said.

“My confidence level wasn’t exactly at my highest, but just trying to remember that feeling of what I needed from myself and the car, and and just go in and almost treat it like the first race of a season again, and and not overthink things, and that seems to work well for me.

“It’s very difficult to actually put those words into action, but I always know when I’m in the right frame of mind.

“Come Q3, I can always deliver. It’s just ensuring I’m in that right frame of mind ahead of that point.”

With an open opportunity in front of him to close in some points on both Antonelli, and championship interloper Lewis Hamilton, Russell said even the threat of Ferrari’s race pace shouldn’t be enough to take away his chance, provided he can get away cleanly into Turn 1.

“I think just a good start, to be honest. I think it’s going to be a very challenging circuit to overtake,” he said, when asked what he needs in order to deliver the Sprint race win.

“The Ferrari’s race pace looked exceptionally strong this morning. We looked quite offset, to be honest, in the order of three or four tenths.

“We’ll see if that translates into tomorrow. But a clean start, and that should be enough.”

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