George Russell signals relief after Mercedes left 'scratching our heads'

George Russell has shared his relief over a positive qualifying result after Mercedes was left confused by its pace during the session.

Russell struggled for pace throughout the Silverstone outing and did not appear to be involved in the battle for pole position.

However, his final effort was his strongest of the weekend and placed him in fourth for the start of Sunday's British Grand Prix.

Russell's Q3 lap was just three-hundredths of a second down on securing a spot on the front row of the grid next to pole-sitter Max Verstappen.

“Really pleased with that last lap - every lap until that point, we were anywhere from five tenths to eight tenths off the pace,” Russell told media including RacingNews365.

“We were scratching our heads a little bit because we thought with the cooler conditions, things would come more towards us. 

“It was only that last lap in Q3 when it did. It's always good when your best lap of the weekend is the last one.”

Russell conceded Mercedes has endured a more difficult event than originally expected, despite the cooler track conditions.

However, the Briton pointed out the high-speed nature of the circuit puts the tyres under great stress, leading to high temperatures regardless.

“Today was probably on the whole, was less competitive than we were potentially expecting,” he said. 

“I think the likes of Ferrari have been very competitive this weekend, which was a bit of a surprise. 

“I know McLaren have brought some little upgrades. We didn't really bring anything, but we haven't brought anything for a while now. 

“We just need to try and understand that. It is cool but of course, the circuit is so quick. You're putting so much energy in the tyres, so much temperature in the tyres.

“The tyres are running hotter here compared to Canada, and Canada was a 50 degree track [temperature]. Here it's 25.”