Russell rates maiden pole as his best lap in F1 to date

George Russell had already established a reputation for exceeding expectations in qualifying while driving for Williams, frequently making it through to the second round of qualifying despite the car's limitations.

That earned him the sobriquet of 'Mr Saturday'. Last year he even went on to clinch second place on the grid at Spa, and qualified third - again in wet conditions - for the Russian Grand Prix.

But Russell had to wait until he moved to Mercedes to claim his maiden pole.

That came in the last race before the summer break in Hungary, where it looked like the battle for the top spot was down to Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc battling with Red Bull's Max Verstappen in qualifying.

• Read also: Mercedes will never have the fastest car 'outright' in 2022 says Russell

But then in a last-gasp push at the end of Q3, Russell managed to put in a time that pipped Sainz to pole by 0.044s He kept the lead at the start of the race, and went on to finish on the podium.

So it's not a great surprise that when he was asked to nominate what he felt had been his best qualifying lap to date in his F1 career, Russell had no hesitation in responding.

"Every corner leads on to the next so it's difficult to compare very different conditions, but pure driving - probably the one [in Hungary].

"I think the nature of this circuit - when you get everything absolutely hooked up - nothing comes close because it's so fast, so flowing," he told the media at the Hungaroring at the time.

He added that his front row start at Spa was a close second. Because of atrocious conditions, the race itself was aborted after just two laps behind the safety car handing Russell his first F1 podium.

"I don't think the feeling of this pole, and the feeling of that Spa lap, that I have qualifyings that will ever come close to these two feelings.

"Obviously [Hungary] was my first [pole position]. As a team we struggled so much at Williams, we were so far behind - to get that second [at Spa] was massive.

"This is what racing is about," he added. "This is why I wake up every single day and I want to be World Champion. Feeling like this is something you can't really dream of."

Russell also spoke to the Beyond The Grid podcast about his experiences at the two teams he's raced for in his time in F1, comparing and contrasting the culture at Williams and Mercedes.

"It feels very much like a family team [at Mercedes] but Williams genuinely was a family-run business," he pointed out. "At Williams, when I went around the factory and I was meeting people the first time, everybody I met had been there 15-20, 25-30 years.

"That seemed to be the case throughout the whole factory," he continued. "The spirit at Williams was immense, everybody there worked so hard, they were so passionate, but throughout my time it was going through a difficult period.

"When the pandemic hit, the team had to do everything it could to survive and stay afloat and not go bankrupt. That paid such a huge toll on everybody within the company," he said.

"At Mercedes they've had so much success. Toto has been at the helm for so long, and the culture is ingrained within everybody here. It is a well-oiled machine working on all cylinders.

"I knew how excellent the team was and how talented everybody was, but it's been quite a reminder since joining the level at which they operate," he said.

"It's been truly inspiring for me to see 2000 people giving everything they can to make fast race cars. Their priorities are race, race and race and they just want to win. That is pretty special.

"There is a lot of core people here, especially in the race team that have been since the Honda days and through the success of Brawn," he added. "But there is still lots of fresh and new energy coming in and bringing great things to the team."

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