George Russell to 'endure pain' of mysterious Mercedes issue after investigations

George Russell expects to have to "endure the pain" of his ongoing issue with his Mercedes F1 car in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Since the British GP weekend, Russell has been noticeably struggling with straight-line speed in the W17 and was about a tenth behind team-mate Kimi Antonelli through Sector 2 on his final flying lap in qualifying.

However, he slipped to 0.508s down through Sector 3 and took fourth on the road, although he will be third on the grid after Lando Norris's penalty.

Russell had previously explained that he felt the team had a "serious issue" on his side of the garage to find a solution to the ongoing problem, as he expanded on the elimination process the team had followed to try and diagnose the root cause of the issue, which is related to battery and energy deployment.

"We thought coming out of Silverstone, it was in the driving style and technique, but we have finally concluded that it is not, and we have changed everything," Russell began to Sky Sports F1. 

"It was four-tenths on the straights in Q3, and this weekend, I've seen anything from two-tenths to four or five-tenths, and in FP2, it was seven-tenths.

"The team are working so hard to understand what it is, and we saw it as early as Austria, but we thught there was a reason, and in Sprint Qualifying at Silverstone,, we thought we found the problem, and so we keep going through the process of: 'We think this is it,' and then we change it, and: 'Oh, it is not this, maybe it is the driving style.'

"I thought it was the driving style, and I came into this weekend, and I said on Thursday, 'I think it is the driving style.' I changed the driving style, and it is not the driving style. 

"Anything can happen [in the race], but the truth is, battling against my team-mate, at the best of times, is a tall order, but I feel confident head-to-head that I can achieve it. 

"But it feels like you are batting with one hand behind your back, so it is a challenge, so I am going to try and endure the pain of this issue [in the race], and hope for a great result and try to find a solution for next week."