George Russell makes 'won't happen again' declaration after Mercedes blast

25 July 2023 , 06:00

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George Russell was not happy after qualifying in Budapest (Image: Getty Images)

George Russell declared the mistake which ruined his Hungarian Grand Prix in qualifying "won't happen again" after publicly criticising his Mercedes team.

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton enjoyed his best qualifying session since 2021, steering the W14 to pole position. But Saturday was far less enjoyable for Russell who didn't even make it out of Q1.

He left his final flying lap until very late and ran into traffic as a result, meaning he could not go quickly enough to progress. Team boss Toto Wolff banged his fist on his desk in frustration, and Russell made it clear he was angry too.

"It's disappointing because we didn't need to take so many risks," he said after the session. "We were one of the few cars who just did one lap at the end, the car was more than quick enough to make Q2, Q3.

"It's rare we make these kind of mistakes. It's what you deserve, I guess, if you don't do things right. We didn't need to be in that position at that time, for the whole session it just wasn't good enough from our side."

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The 24-year-old was in a much better mood 24 hours later. He progressed through the field, climbing 12 places to finish sixth, and said: "It was very satisfying. To come away P6 from P18, you couldn’t ask for much more – the car was feeling great."

But Russell was still ruing the fact he started so far back, adding: "It's obviously disappointing that we didn't get more points as a team this weekend, because perhaps if we were both starting in the top four maybe one of us or even both of us could have had a podium today.

Toto Wolff was also angry about the qualifying failure (Sky Sports)

"When you have two cars fighting against one other team, you always have a bit of an advantage. That was a shame, no doubt, but we learn from it, we move on and it's good points for the teams' championship."

When asked for specifics on what his team had learned from the weekend, he replied: "The qualifying was clear, there's not a lot more to say from that. As a team we know that we made a big mistake and it won't happen again.

"You learn a lot more in life from the failures and the mistakes than you do from the successes, so you sort of need them here and there."

Daniel Moxon