That old machine still has some serious pace in it. George Russell bounced back from his late-race retirement at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia with a stellar run to second place during Sprint Qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix, putting his Mercedes right behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Faced with difficulties assessing the upgrades they brought to Sepang, Mercedes opted to split their approach for the weekend at the Marina Bay circuit. Russell dropped back to the exact specification he drove to pole position and victory in Baku, while team mate Kimi Antonelli retained the new parts.
The rolled-back package paid immediate dividends on Friday. Russell charged all the way to second on the grid for the Sprint, while the Italian wound up seventh and more than half a second adrift.
Russell's speed was apparent right from the start of track action. “I think we’ve seemed competitive all day, to be honest, from the first laps in FP1 – we obviously topped the timesheets there,” he explained after the session.
He acknowledged the pace of the Red Bull ahead, noting that Max Verstappen went on a slightly different strategy in Q3 by completing just a single lap. Even so, the Briton made his feelings clear about the older parts: “Well, I can definitely confirm the old one is not bad!”
When asked about what the split specifications mean for the team going forward, Russell kept his perspective grounded in the timing screens. “Let’s see what tomorrow brings with Kimi on the upgrade. As a team, there’s still nothing telling us that it isn’t working, but it’s a sport driven by the stopwatch, and the stopwatch has not been great for the upgrade yet.”
Looking ahead to the Sprint race itself, Russell faces a tricky launch off the line, compounded by the fact that he will also take an engine-related grid drop for Sunday’s Grand Prix. The start might not offer an easy opening move either, as pole-sitter Verstappen remains under investigation for allegedly overtaking Lewis Hamilton under yellow flags in SQ1.
“It’s going to be very challenging,” Russell said of the start. “The grip left to right here is a big difference. The drivers on the pole side last year had a big advantage, so it’s probably going to be trying to maintain P2. I know Max is under investigation for the yellows, so let’s see.”
