George Russell has written off his Monaco Grand Prix weekend after a bizarre power failure in Q2 brought his qualifying to a premature end – just moments after teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli had crashed out in Q1.
The double setback for Mercedes leaves both cars stranded well outside the top 10 on Sunday’s grid on a circuit where passing is notoriously difficult.
Russell’s W16 came to a sudden halt in the tunnel after he hit a bump exiting Turn 1, something he had experienced earlier in the weekend, but this time with disastrous consequences.
“George lost power after hitting a bump coming out of Turn 1 and was unable to restart the car after trying a number of switch changes. It looks like a potential electrical problem at this stage,” commented his Mercedes team.
“Yeah, it was definitely the cause, but it was a bump in the straight,” Russell confirmed
“It's a bump that's been there all weekend and a bump that I've felt all weekend, but for whatever reason, on this occasion, the whole engine switched off when I hit this bump.”
The failure came just as Russell was finding his rhythm following setup struggles earlier in the weekend.
“Really disappointing because we got ourselves a bit lost this weekend with the set-up and we went back to basic, to the quali. From lap one, I felt back in the game,” he said.
“I really feel we would have been in the top four today. Now, we're not. It was clicking in Q1.
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“We were one of the few drivers not to take any new tyres. I did one corner in Q2 and I was already almost two tenths up already, that would have been plenty enough to be into Q3 with two sets—we had the two hard tyres.
“We had a real chance this weekend, but now it's up in smoke. Weekend over, so it's pretty deflating.”
Russell’s Q2 exit came on the heels of a costly error from Antonelli, who brought out the red flag at the end of Q1 after crashing at the Nouvelle Chicane.
“I think it was an unnecessary mistake because I think I was already through by then and it's a shame to finish the session like this,” the young Italian admitted.
“It's definitely difficult for the team, but George couldn't do anything about it. While on my side, I did a mistake, so I definitely need to review and see what I need to do.”
After a throttle-related DNF in Imola, Antonelli’s Monte Carlo crash has left him seeking a mental reset.
“I mean, we'll try something with the strategy to see if we can do something, but I just need to reset because it's been two bad weekends now in a row. I need to reset and come back stronger.”
The new mandatory two-stop rule for Sunday’s 78-lap race offers teams a rare strategic variable in Monaco, but Russell wasn’t optimistic about turning it to his advantage.
“Well, for sure, there's going to be some crazy strategies, but we qualified 14th. We probably should have been in the top five,” he said.
With overtaking nearly impossible and both Mercedes cars starting on the seventh and eighth rows, the team faces an uphill battle to salvage anything meaningful.
A weekend that once showed promise has unraveled into another harsh reality check.
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