The Mercedes team has revealed that it went for sharply contrasting strategies for its two drivers in today's qualifying session for the Belgium Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
A lack of relevant running in the rain-hit practice session meant the team was flying blind when it came to deciding how to approach qualifying in rapidly drying conditions later in the day.
They ended up putting Hamilton on a low-downforce configuration which saw him take P3 on the grid for Sunday, while Russell was on a high downforce setting that left him struggling to P8.
“We have run two very different rear wings and configurations,” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff explained to Sky Sports F1. “And you can see that Lewis is just able to extract more performance from that.”
"I'm happy with today's result," said Hamilton. "It was a hectic session as it was consistently drying up. It was very slippery at the beginning and visibility was a challenge.
"You know that every lap you are going to be improving as it dries up, so you need to maximise it. That's why we were waiting at the end of the pitlane each session.
“With FP1 it was wet running," Hamilton continued. "Getting the set-up ready for qualifying today when eventually it went to dry, it was just like a big guessing game.
“Generally the car was doing pretty decent. It's just the middle sector we're losing a second, so I've got to go and study to try and figure out where that is and if there's any way with the package that I have, whether I can close that.
"At the end, we were a good chunk off Max and his lap was pretty impressive. We're pleased with where we are starting though. I'll now have Max behind me on Sunday, but the aim is definitely to fight for a podium and chase down the guys ahead."
Meanwhile Wolff admitted that the high downforce approach had unquestionably hurt Russell's session. "He has a bit of a barn door on the back, but that can be advantageous for tyre performance on Sunday."
Even though he knew about the choice of contrasting settings, Russell said: “To be honest we struggled in that session and don't really know why," adding: “We have just been off the pace.
"I usually love those transitional sessions but every lap we were nowhere," he continued. "We know qualifying is not everything around here, but definitely we would have liked to have been higher up the order."
"George struggled a bit for pace as the track moved to dry," acknowledged Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes' trackside engineering director.
"We'll have a look through the data and see what there is to learn ahead of the sprint qualifying tomorrow; hopefully we'll find a bit of speed.
"Lewis was very close to Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez but unfortunately, we were missing a tenth," he added. "The sprint race is going to a bit of a long run test ahead of Sunday's GP. We can't change the car now so hopefully we've got the race balance in the right place."
Both Hamilton and Russell were required to visit the stewards office after the end of qualifying for an incident that occurred during Q1. Hamilton ran off-track through Eau Rouge-Raidillon and rejoined directly ahead Russell when both were on out-laps, forcing Russell to take avoiding action.
They explained that they had both been trying not to impede the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas who was on a hot lap behind them. The stewards agreed with their reasoning and decided to take no further action.
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