Mercedes’ George Russell cut a frustrated figure after qualifying for the British Grand Prix as he qualified eighth.
Russell and team-mate Sir Lewis Hamilton had been disrupting the top four throughout the weekend as Ferrari and Red Bull finally started to feel the heat from the Silver Arrows, and they were challenging throughout the first two qualifying sessions as well.
However, their pace fell away from the top two teams at the end of the afternoon, and Hamilton ended up fifth having been fourth on Saturday in Canada, making for another solid performance from him.
Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso followed the seven-time world champion, and Russell could not convert his pace from earlier in qualifying as he was forced to settle for a start on the fourth row.
Having seen his team-mate even the qualifying scores at 5-5 by ending the session three positions in front, the 24-year-old was understandably frustrated.
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“Definitely [disappointing], I think as the session progressed everything just sort of got slightly worse,” Russell told Sky Sports.
“I had really good confidence in Q1 and we were in the top three for the majority and then suddenly [I] didn’t have that come Q3 when it mattered.
“The car definitely had the pace to be P4 or P5 today, I made a mistake when it mattered on the last lap.
“So, yeah a little bit disappointing but there is definitely promise there, the pace this morning in the dry looked really strong; it’s going to be dry tomorrow.
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“Our pace on high fuel I think could be on a par with the drivers on the front but obviously starting down in P8 is not going to be an easy task.”
As for the race, Russell reckons that the general pace of the W13 this weekend has merited a podium, but his expectations are slightly more realistic after Saturday.
“I want to get past Lando and Alonso as soon as possible and try and join the fight at the front” he added.
“I think there’s no reason why we can’t be in that fight but [we need] a good start and based on pure pace I’d say there’s no reason why we couldn’t fight for a podium but as I said, starting down in P8, it’s not where we want to be.”
Russell has finished every race this season in the top five, and starting eighth is certainly not a disaster as he aims to climb towards the podium at his home race.