Russell unhappy with Mercedes team's 'risk-taking' in Q1

George Russell feels his Mercedes team took too much risk with the timing of his final run in Q1, which left him stranded a lowly P18 in qualifying in Hungary.

Rapid track evolution meant that changes were fast and furious in the field from the outset of Q1.

Both Russell and teammate Lewis Hamilton were sat in the lower tier of the pecking order with just minutes left on the clock.

While Hamilton succeeded in ensuring his safe passage into Q2, Russell was locked among a string of cars that had practically ground to a halt before the final corner as everyone prepared for their ultimate flyer and sought a clear lap.

• Read also: Emotional Hamilton says Hungary pole 'like the first time'

Left on the back foot even before he got going, the Briton clocked in a dismal 18th at the end of his final run.

"The whole session, we were on track at the wrong time, the wrong point and taking way too much risk as a team," a frustrated Russell told the media after his botched session.

"The other car was so quick, we didn't need to fuel for one lap and go right at the end in loads of traffic.

"I was trying to respect the gentleman's agreement, got overtaken by other cars, most notably Pierre [Gasly].

"I was three-tenths down before I started and the lap was gone. I'm not going to blame any of the drivers as we are all fighting for ourselves.

"As a team, we should have done a better job."

Russell didn't blame his colleagues for breaching the gentleman's agreement as everyone jocked for position

"In all honesty, I probably would have done the same if I was in their shoes," he said.

"You've got to fight for yourself. But the track is big enough, it's 4.5km long and we're using a space of one kilometre with 10 cars, so we just need to look in the mirror and recognise that we made a big c**k up today."

Russell didn't believe that having to qualify in Q1 on the mandatory hard tyre was much of a challenge.

"Of all the tracks, this was the one where it is probably most straightforward," he said. "This year's hard is last year's medium.

"So and it's obviously so hot out there, that the hard is working fine. It would have been a different story in Imola for example, and I don't know where the next event is [Monza], but again it will be a different story."

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