Russell says miscommunication led to tyre mix-up in Monza Q3

George Russell has revealed that a critical miscommunication between himself and his team led to a costly tyre choice error during the final part of qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix.

Despite topping Q1 on medium tyres and expressing a preference to continue using them in Q3, Russell emerged from the garage on Pirelli’s soft tyres, leaving him visibly frustrated and compromising his qualifying performance.

The red-walled rubber, typically the fastest compound, were the default choice for most teams, but Russell felt the mediums offered him greater comfort and performance.

However, a lack of clarity between his Mercedes team and himself led to an unexpected switch, prompting the Briton to tell his race engineer, "Uh, I thought I said I wanted the mediums”, as he rolled out on to the pitlane for the session’s shootout.

“A bit of an error on both halves”

Explaining the sequence to media after qualifying, Russell admitted there was confusion on both sides.

“We ran it in Q1 and we were the quickest. After Q2 I said I’d like to use the mediums because I felt more comfortable on it,” Russell said.

"It wasn’t the first time this season that mediums, for some cars at least, have been faster. I’m not going to stand here and say ‘if only’ - we ultimately didn’t do a good job in Q3 anyway. But a bit annoying.

“In all honesty I probably wasn’t totally clear enough. I just said after Q1 I’d like to use the mediums and I sort of re-emphasised during the middle of Q2.

“So I asked if we were sticking to plan and they said yes, but I thought the plan was mediums, they thought the plan was fitting the softs. For me I thought it was quite clear because of the performance we showed. A bit of an error on both halves.”

Russell stressed that while the session was frustrating, it did not overshadow his expectations for the race.

“Our race pace will probably be better than Ferrari but they’re mighty fast in the straight so we need to try and get ahead of Leclerc from the off otherwise it will be quite a long, frustrating race behind him.”

Antonelli Shines on Home Turf

Behind Russell, Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli impressed on his home soil by qualifying seventh, marking his best Q3 performance since the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

“I was happy,” Antonelli said. “There was quite a bit more on the table on the last lap. We tried something different with the tyres and just really struggled in the first two sectors, especially with the rear.

“I had a lot of moments, especially first and second chicane, which was not ideal. The last sector felt strong but obviously the time loss in the first two sectors was too big. Definitely there was more on the table but still happy with how I built the session.

“I was quite nervous going into qualifying because, let’s say, I like to make my life a bit tougher. With the mistake yesterday, we lost quite a bit of laps and then automatically you have to do a different programme for FP3 which is not ideal because you just want to prepare for quali.

“Still a lot to improve, especially on trying to build the weekend more nicely, but looking forward to tomorrow.”

With the Silver Arrows looking competitive on race pace, the focus shifts to Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, where overtaking opportunities will be crucial for both Russell and Antonelli to maximise their strong grid positions.

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