Russell: “Surprised by McLaren and Ferrari. We overheated the tyres”

Beaten by Antonelli and more… The big disappointment in the Sprint Qualifying in Miami is definitely George Russell. Tomorrow the Englishman will start the short race from sixth position, on the third row. A disappointment for those who started this World Championship as great favorites and who are instead continuing to take the ‘pay’ first and foremost from their teammate. In fact, Kimi Antonelli set the second best time and beat the Englishman by four tenths, a sign that even with the difficulties faced by Mercedes in Miami there was definitely more performance that could be extracted from the W17. “I was surprised to have been overtaken by the McLarens and the Ferraris,” Russell admitted to Sky Sports. Yes, because the real twist was this: Norris, Piastri, Leclerc and Verstappen who were all faster than the Mercedes #63, not just Antonelli. A hard blow for Russell to digest: “We knew that our rivals would get closer, but today they were faster than us – Russell had to admit, who then added – I struggled a lot on my part. Probably also due to the conditions. They were very negative qualifying sessions. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow. What was missing? We overheated the tires and in the end we also lacked the right balance with the car – the Briton commented – I wasn’t able to push as much as I would have liked. I have to say that I was especially surprised by the progress of the others.”

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News
2026-05-02 08:10:00