George Russell bewildered by ‘flattering’ P4 finish in Qatar as he looks back on ‘funny’ weekend

Mercedes driver George Russell was left baffled after his seemingly disastrous Qatar Grand Prix saw him cross the line in fourth place, as he was unable to maximise his late promotion to pole position.

The Briton started the weekend on the front foot, sealing P2 twice for the Sprint and Sunday’s race, before being gifted pole when Max Verstappen was demoted to second following a penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly in qualifying.

However, just like the Sprint on Saturday, Russell lost out on the opening lap and was forced to make way for both the Dutchman and McLaren’s Lando Norris, with his race going from bad to worse over the course of 57 laps.

George Russell leads Oscar Piastri of Australia driving the (81) McLaren MCL38 Mercedes on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Qatar at Lusail International Circuit on December 01, 2024 in Lusail City, Qatar. (Photo by Joe Portlock/Getty Images) — Russell was Mercedes' only points-scorer as Hamilton crossed the line in twelfth

“I mean this sport is just so funny how it swings so quickly,” Russell said. “Friday was a great day. Saturday, pace in the Sprint [was] arguably equal quickest. Qualified second, and then today… bad start, pace was nowhere.”

After continuing to drop behind the frontrunners, he peeled off into the pits, where he endured a stop of seven seconds that saw him return to traffic on the track behind the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

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Both Russell and his team mate Lewis Hamilton were heard over the radio complaining that the car was not turning the way they wanted it to, and the former suffered even more on what he deemed to be unsuitable hard tyres.

To top it all off, he was noted for a Safety Car infringement and subsequently handed a five-second time penalty in the closing laps – though he was able to keep his P4 finish as Pierre Gasly was 7.6s behind when the chequered flag fell.

Max Verstappen, George Russell and Lando Norris pose for a photo in parc ferme during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Qatar at Lusail International Circuit on November 30, 2024 in Lusail City, Qatar. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) — Russell's strong qualifying looked like the perfect opportunity to add to his podium total

Russell summarised that “P4 is probably a flattering result for what we deserved”, but was keen to look ahead to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, which is set to be just as unpredictable.

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He said: “I think it’s just so close with the top four teams at the moment. Even in qualifying, there’s only two-tenths between the front row and the third row.

“You only need to get it very slightly wrong to lose out on a lot of positions. I’m still going to take a lot of positives from this weekend. We just need to analyse what happened today.”