George Russell's shock Q2 exit in Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying was due to a throttle problem – one that had hampered him in FP1. In a wet second segment of qualifying, Russell was expected to advance through to fight for pole position, but was left 0.006s below the cutline in 11th. Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton qualified third, and was disappointed to miss out on pole position by 0.054s, while Toto Wolff described Russell's exit as being the result of a throttle issue which first flared up in Friday's opening practice.
Russell Q2 exit explained
"It's a shame, but we had a problem that came back in qualifying, which we had in FP1," Wolff explained to Sky Sports F1 . "It was torque following, basically you think the throttle is open and it pushes you into the corner, and then the brakes had a problem. "He didn't have the equipment today to really fight for a top position." Despite the problem occurring in FP1, Wolff also revealed it did not happen in FP2 or FP3. "It suddenly reappeared straight from the get go in qualifying – we've got to see what it is," he said.
Russell's point of view
"It felt like every time I got to a corner, I was kind of like picking up the throttle, and the car was just totally pushing on," Russell told media, including RacingNews365.com. "I think we could see this issue on the data and it got progressively worse as qualifying continued, so I just couldn't get around any of the slow speed corners. "It was literally like someone was trying to push me from behind. It is a real shame. "It was there from the very first lap in qualifying, but it just got progressively worse. "It's really frustrating considering how quick the car has been around here and how quick our race pace is."
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