George Russell hints at painful reason behind 'shock' sprint qualifying disaster

George Russell has suggested gravel deposited on the Spa-Francorchamps track by team-mate Kimi Antonelli may have resulted in his early exit from sprint qualifying.

Antonelli failed to advance past the opening segment of qualifying on Friday and ended the session in 20th place.

His first effort saw him run wide through Turn 14 and into the gravel before rejoining the circuit and spreading stones across the racing line.

Russell was one of the first cars on the scene after Antonelli's mistake, and although he was able to move into SQ2, he could not advance into the top 10 shootout.

“We’ve had the pace all day,” Russell said. “In Q1, I ran over all that gravel when Kimi went off.

“For the rest of that lap, it felt terrible, the lap after felt terrible. My lap in Q2 felt terrible.

“We saw some damage on the car, we need to see if that’s the reason.

“It’s a big shock to be out in Q2 and the gap was so big. I’m sure there’s a reason for it.

“But as soon as I went through that gravel, the car didn’t feel the same since.”

Russell's suspicions seemed to be verified by Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin, who also suggested the gravel dumped by Antonelli played a role in the early exit.

“Kimi's spin on his first lap of the session caused damage to the floor and diffuser,” Shovlin said.

“He got the car back on track and tried a second effort, but the damage was so bad he couldn't set a competitive time. 

“George was running not too far behind Kimi as he spun and suffered some floor damage and gravel rash himself. 

“That was likely a contributing factor in our disappointing performance in SQ2, although we will look to see if there is anything we could have done differently to extract more pace despite that.”