George Russell was fourth in FP3 on Saturday in Barcelona, and then showing remarkable consistency the Mercedes driver repeated that result in Q1, Q2 and Q3.
It was a solid qualifying session for the Brit, and a good way to bounce back from the disappointment of Monaco.
Last year he also started the Spanish GP from P4, and he managed to jump into the lead at the start, although as the race progressed he dropped back – to finish in the inevitable fourth.
“We know that on a Saturday, our car is anywhere between P2 and P5, that’s where it’s been all season, and again today,” he said when I asked him about the session.
“It’s good, we managed to get to Q3 only on two sets of tyres. So I’ve got a new soft tyre tomorrow, which is a valid race tyre. So that’s a positive, but we’re realistic, we know that the car isn’t quick on Sundays.”
Russell remains uncertain about the W16’s potential form in the hot conditions of Sunday’s race, which could make life tricky.
However he’s hoping that the harder compounds in use in Spain will favour the team.
“We also made a lot of changes to the car this weekend to try and improve the race pace,” he said.
“So to see that we haven’t really hindered the quali pace is a positive. But then also it may mean it’s not going to improve the race pace.
“So tomorrow is going to be an interesting one for us. We struggled a lot when it was the soft compound of tyres, when it was hot. But when it was the hard compound of tyres in Bahrain and it was hot, we obviously finished second there.
“So it’s when the tyres overheat, if the tyres overheat by 10 degrees on a C4 it’s much more punishing than 10 degrees on a C1 tyre. So that’s sort of the only slight silver lining to give us a bit of hope for tomorrow.”
Meanwhile it was a solid session for Russell’s team mate Kimi Antonelli, who will start from P6.
“After the two difficult weekends, especially qualifying, it was good to kind of get back into the rhythm,” said the Italian.
“Speaking about rhythm, it took me a little bit at the start of the session to get back into that rhythm of qualifying. But also that put me in a position where I had to use one extra set during the whole session, which compromised a little Q3.
“Because definitely the step between used and new was quite big. Overall, still P6. Obviously I want to finish a bit higher in the ranks. But at the same time, there’s a long race tomorrow.”
Adam Cooper F1 