George Russell thinks that he “doesn’t deserve” to start the Italian GP from P2 given Mercedes’ qualifying performance.
Russell was 6th in Saturday’s qualifying at Monza, almost 1.4 seconds behind polesitter Charles Leclerc. Nevertheless, the Briton will start the race from 2nd place following grid penalties of several drivers in front.
Russell was not happy with his pace in qualifying: “We don’t deserve to be starting P2 after today’s performance.
“It was again a frustrating session because we can’t seem to get the car in that sweet spot.
“[In] FP1 the car felt great, in FP2, FP3 substantially worse. In Q1, the car felt great, [we were] a few tenths off Ferrari. Q2 was worse, Q3 was worse.
“But ultimately that’s been a theme this season. Lining up P2 we’ll have a faster race car, probably not fast enough to battle with Max [Verstappen], potentially [we can fight] Charles.”
