George Russell admitted it was "good to remind myself I've still got it" after returning to form by taking Sprint pole for the Dutch Grand Prix. Having begun the season as the clear favourite for the drivers' title, Russell has endured a tumultuous campaign which has seen him unexpectedly outperformed by his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli. Antonelli arrived in Zandvoort, the first event after the sport's summer break, with a 50-point lead over Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton at the top of the Drivers' Championship, with Russell a further nine points adrift in third.
Knowing he needs a major turnaround to fight back in the title race, Russell made the perfect start on Friday by beating McLaren's Lando Norris to Sprint pole after Antonelli took himself out of contention by damaging his car in the gravel in the first part of the session. Russell said: "It's been a little while since I've been top of the timesheets in any session. I can't even remember the last time.
"It's good to remind myself I've still got it and haven't forgotten how to drive. The break came at a good point." Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Russell edged out Norris by four hundredths of a second, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri also finishing within a tenth of the Brit's leading time. "Of course it's only the Sprint," Russell added.
"Qualifying will be the key one and McLaren look really fast and Ferrari look quick. "It's been a real surprise to us as a team these past couple of races. We are in a good spot." Russell appeared to run out of ideas as the summer break approached, with the 28-year-old publicly flip-flopping on whether his driving style was the reason he was struggling to match Antonelli, who is competing in just his second F1 season and only turns 20 two days after Sunday's race.
"I came into this weekend with a real open mind because I had no idea how it would go. My confidence level wasn't exactly at my highest," Russell said. "I just tried to remember that feeling of what I needed from myself and the car - almost treating it like the first race of the season again and not overthink things.
That seems to have worked well for me. "It's very difficult to actually put those words into action but I know when I'm in the right frame of mind, come Q3 I can always deliver, it's just ensuring I'm in the right frame of mind ahead of that point." Antonelli had topped the weekend's sole practice to establish himself as favourite for Sprint pole but made an unnecessary error in the first part of qualifying. Pushing hard on his first lap in SQ1, Antonelli lost control of his car at the final corner and actually did well to stay pointing forward and avoid becoming beached in the gravel.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
