George Russell 'going through pain' of Mercedes issues

George Russell feels he is "going through pain" at present after two difficult weekends in the Far East.

Russell was left frustrated following a Japanese Grand Prix weekend in which he again encountered issues en route to finishing fourth behind race-winning Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli, and relinquishing his drivers' championship lead to the Italian teenager.

The British driver struggled with his W17 in qualifying, which was in stark contrast to the way the car performed during practice. Russell had to settle for second on the grid behind Antonelli.

It was a similar situation a fortnight previously in China, where Russell looked the stronger of the two Mercedes drivers up until a technical gremlin forced him to stop on track early in Q3. A solitary flying lap late on salvaged second, again behind Antonelli.

Speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, a frustrated Russell said: “It just feels like, at the moment, these last two weekends, every issue we're having is on my side, and I'm the one to go through that pain. It’s just how it's panned out, really. I can’t give you more than that.

“It’s like sometimes people are having problems in practice. We've not had a single issue in practice this whole season.

“I’ve had the problems in qualifying. Lando [Norris] hasn’t had problems in qualifying, he's had all the problems in practice.

“So it's just luck of the draw with these new cars. But it's race three of 22 - I’m not concerned at all. It's a long year.

“I know we’ve got what it takes to bounce back and not dwell on it."

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Russell suffers 'bad luck'

In the race in Japan, Russell was left to rue his poor luck after feeling an early pit stop cost him victory.

Shortly before the stop, Russell was engaged in a battle for the lead with McLaren's Oscar Piastri,

Moments after he completed his stop, however, a safety car was deployed following a seismic crash for Oliver Bearman, providing several drivers - including Antonelli - with a cheap pit stop.

The situation led to the one-four finish for Antonelli and Russell, who later acknowledged that certain incidents cannot always swing his way in F1.

“I don't really know why I pitted at that point. I think it was because Charles was coming,” Russell said. But what can you do? That is pure luck. If that had been one lap later, we'd have won the race.

“If there had been no crash, maybe we would have regretted not pitting at that point.

“In racing, sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it goes against you.”