LEWIS TRAILS BEHIND AGAIN
Spanish Grand Prix
Sky Sports F1, Today, 2pm
BY NICK PATTISON GEORGE RUSSELL yet again had the upper hand on his Mercedes teammate – leaving Lewis Hamilton bemused after qualifying for today’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Championship leader Charles Leclerc (below) bounced back from a spin to put his Ferrari on pole ahead of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.
But all eyes were on Mercedes, who have brought a number of upgrades to Spain – including a revised floor and new front wing.
Russell impressed with fourth, two places and more than a 10th of a second faster than Lewis.
That left seven-time world champion Hamilton shaking his head.
Hamilton admitted: ”I’m still way off. My team-mate’s fourth. So that means the car should be at least third or fourth and I’m in sixth.
“I’m still struggling with the car. I don’t know how to get around that, I don’t know what I’m going to do but I will just continue to try and work hard and figure it out.”
Team boss Toto Wolff said Mercedes had taken a “solid step”, in the battle to tame a bouncing car and would now be able to unlock more performance. Hamilton welcomed that and added. “We don’t have the bouncing in a straight line which is a huge, huge difference.
“But we still have the bouncing in turn three and nine so we’ve still got some improvements to make but the car’s a lot, lot better.”
Russell is 23 points ahead of his team-mate after beating him at four of the five grands prix so far. And the 24-year-old left his fellow Brit trailing in qualifying, albeit six tenths back from Leclerc.
Russell admitted: “We know the direction we need to go, and we can focus on making the car quicker rather than problem-solving.”
Hamilton, 37, so often reigns in Spain, with four of the past five poles and six wins – a record he shares with Michael Schumacher – but he has played second fiddle to team-mate Russell.
“This car just doesn’t talk to Lewis in the way that he likes a car to talk to him,” said Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle.
“We have had years of Lewis being absolutely precise everywhere and he is fighting, he doesn’t know what the car is going to do next.
“Lewis is having to hustle, and that is not how we are used to him driving a Mercedes. “
He added: “George seems to be able to be more precise with the car.”