Russell ran third early on at Zandvoort before slipping back
George Russell says he doesn’t have any answers after a difficult race for Mercedes in Zandvoort saw him finish a distant seventh.
Russell made a good start from fourth and ran third in the early laps, but later he dropped back.
He made an extra second stop for soft tyres late in the race in an attempt to salvage something.
He finished 44 seconds behind winner Lando Norris, and just ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton, who worked his way up from 14th, also with a two-stop strategy.
“I probably would have finished one, maybe max, two positions higher, but we just had no pace,” said Russell when asked by this writer about the extra stop.
“I was just dropping like a stone. I was especially quite surprised versus Ferrari, we were expecting to be comfortably ahead of them.
“And Charles [Leclerc] was quicker, Carlos [Sainz] was catching me. Clearly, we got something wrong I think with the tyres just out of bed.”
Russell admitted that he was initially upbeat having beaten Oscar Piastri off the line and grabbed third spot.
“After the first couple of laps I thought we were on course for probably a podium here,” he said. “I knew the overtaking was going to be difficult. I was really shocked at how fast McLaren were.
“Lando just looked so comfortable out there, and it was super impressive to see. We’ve had six really strong races, and then suddenly we’ve finished almost a minute behind the win today.
“So you don’t lose all of that performance overnight. Yesterday, we qualified fourth, and clearly didn’t get something right today.
“Honestly, right now I’m still scratching my head. It was very tough conditions, with this wind, with the long corners. Right now, I don’t have the answers.”
Adam Cooper F1 