Mercedes believes its strategy during Japanese Grand Prix qualifying “dictated” the result for George Russell in the race.
During Q3, Russell and the team opted for a slower out-lap in the second flying laps to try and cool the tyres, but the Briton conceded he “paid the price” as he did not then have the required levels of grip through sector one as he qualified in fifth place, just 0.019s behind Charles Leclerc.
In the race, Russell tried to trigger an undercut on Leclerc to grab fourth place but was unable to make the strategy work as he took fifth – with team-mate Kimi Antonelli sixth – with the top six on the grid finishing in the same positions at the flag.
In total, eight of the top 10 stayed in their grid positions, with the only change being Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton passing Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar for seventh.
Reflecting on the race, team representative and director of communications Bradley Lord explained how the Q3 gamble defined the rest of Mercedes’ weekend.
“George ultimately maximised everything this weekend, apart from run two of Q3 which frustratingly sort of dictated the outcome of the weekend,” Lord told media including RacingNews365.
“We knew the traffic was there, and took the risk [with the early pit-stop]. In the morning, we talked about it and George said, ‘No, I’m willing to box into some traffic because the tyre condition will enable us to make some ground on them.
“That was the case and he was able to get through. It just wasn’t quite enough to be able to get past, but we had to try something.
“At that point, it looked like George was not really able to close down Leclerc, so going long didn’t look like it would yield much, therefore we decided to pull the trigger on the undercut, to give it a shot, but it didn’t quite come off.
“[Andrew Shovlin] said on Friday that this is a car that doesn’t have any of the vices of its predecessors, it is a much more solid platform.
“It is giving the drivers confidence on all types of circuits, and you could see that with George from the off, and how Kimi was also able to build into the weekend.”
