George Russell qualified first for a Grand Prix for just the second time in his Formula One career, and he later acknowledged that teammate Lewis Hamilton deserves some of the credit for his strong start in Montreal.
George Russell, who had won the Canadian Grand Prix pole, disclosed that Lewis Hamilton had given him a hand.
Russell won pole position in qualifying on Saturday for the first time in his Formula 1 career. In 2022, he won his only race to date at the Hungarian Grand Prix and the Brazil race, both of which he started from the front row of the grid.
Six of the previous seven pole-sitters at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve have gone on to win, so the British driver is hoping to double that total in Montreal. And Russell acknowledges that he gained some knowledge from teammate Hamilton, which has helped him get to where he is.
“To be honest, this weekend has been really challenging because of the conditions,” the 26-year-old stated. Rain was present throughout the weekend, but in FP3, Lewis outperformed me and I had to closely examine his data to determine what was different about his approach.
“I have to admit, that was a big help. In light of the fact that the car has been feeling fantastic this weekend and we truly deserve it after all of our hard work, I’m just happy that we were able to pull it off ahead of this qualifying. There’s so much excitement. It has been a long time since we felt like this.
Russell made the most dramatic of gains with pole. He recorded the exact same time as Red Bull racer Max Verstappen, but since he entered his lap time first, he was ranked higher.
That is only the second time that pole has been determined in this manner since Formula One adopted the current timing system, which measures laps to three decimal places. The other occurred during the European Grand Prix in Jerez in 1997, where a stunning three-way tie occurred.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Michael Schumacher both set the same time as Jacques Villeneuve, but Villeneuve was the first to cross the finish line and therefore earned pole. Russell was ecstatic about Mercedes’ recent progress and didn’t give a damn about his almost unprecedented achievement.
He stated: “To be honest, it feels like we’ve been saying this for a long time, but we’re just now sort of hitting that sweet spot. However, seeing it translate into a pole position is just a huge relief.
It’s taken a while to be able to sort of get back in the fight because of all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes at Brackley and Brixworth. We’ve nearly felt as though our efforts haven’t been worthwhile, but these past two race weekends have definitely demonstrated otherwise.”
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