{"id":4739,"date":"2026-10-31T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/?p=4739"},"modified":"2026-10-31T19:58:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T22:58:50","slug":"russell-reveals-frustration-with-mercedes-after-coming-within-0-009s-of-beating-hamilton-in-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/russell-reveals-frustration-with-mercedes-after-coming-within-0-009s-of-beating-hamilton-in-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell reveals frustration with Mercedes after coming within 0.009s of beating Hamilton in Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>George Russell qualified second for the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix<\/strong>, finishing just 0.009s behind former Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The British driver admitted he is still struggling to get the best out of his Mercedes<\/strong>, describing recent races and the Mexican weekend as particularly difficult.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Russell said his final Q3 lap demonstrated the car&#8217;s potential<\/strong>, despite his frustration with its inconsistent performance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">George Russell admitted that <strong>he is still struggling to understand the behaviour of his Mercedes<\/strong> despite missing pole position for the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix by just 0.009s on Saturday (31). The British driver qualified second with a 1:16.523, narrowly losing out to former teammate Lewis Hamilton, who secured his first Grand Prix pole for Ferrari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russell acknowledged that his recent performances had been affected by difficulties with the W17, but expressed satisfaction at producing a competitive lap during the decisive qualifying session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Russell admits Mercedes has been difficult to manage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked whether he was satisfied with second place, Russell acknowledged the difficulties he has experienced in recent rounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8220;I am, I am. It&#8217;s been a tricky few races for me and still struggling to get on top of this car,&#8221;<\/strong> Russell said after qualifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Mercedes driver explained that the Mexican weekend had been particularly challenging until his final attempt in Q3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russell had finished third in Friday&#8217;s FP2 but dropped to seventh during final practice, more than half a second behind Lando Norris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, he recovered in qualifying and came within <strong>nine thousandths of a second<\/strong> of beating Hamilton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;To almost get pole\u2026 it was very close in the end. I always know it&#8217;s in there,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result gave Russell a front-row start alongside Hamilton, who <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/hamilton-ends-1197-day-f1-pole-drought-in-mexico-and-becomes-fifth-oldest-polesitter\/\">ended a 1,197-day pole drought and became the fifth-oldest polesitter in Formula 1 history<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/M645715_F1_Grand_Prix_of_Mexico_Practice-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"F1 2026, M\u00c9XICO, CIDADE DO M\u00c9XICO, TREINOS LIVRES, MERCEDES, GEORGE RUSSELL\" class=\"wp-image-1020319714\" srcset=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/M645715_F1_Grand_Prix_of_Mexico_Practice-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/M645715_F1_Grand_Prix_of_Mexico_Practice-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/M645715_F1_Grand_Prix_of_Mexico_Practice-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/M645715_F1_Grand_Prix_of_Mexico_Practice-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/M645715_F1_Grand_Prix_of_Mexico_Practice-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/M645715_F1_Grand_Prix_of_Mexico_Practice.jpg 1619w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">George Russell (Photo: Mercedes)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Russell faces crucial race as Antonelli approaches F1 title<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russell&#8217;s second place also comes at a decisive moment in the Drivers&#8217; Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mercedes teammate <strong>Andrea Kimi Antonelli qualified fifth on outright pace but moves to fourth on the provisional grid<\/strong> following Max Verstappen&#8217;s one-place penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Antonelli arrived in Mexico leading Russell by 123 points after winning the United States Grand Prix at Austin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Italian needs to finish ninth or higher in Sunday&#8217;s race to guarantee the championship, regardless of his rivals&#8217; results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russell, meanwhile, must win and hope Antonelli fails to score enough points to keep the title contest mathematically alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The British driver will start alongside Hamilton, whose Ferrari demonstrated strong qualifying pace despite <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/hamilton-suffers-ferrari-engine-failure-during-mexican-gp-practice\/\">a power unit problem interrupting his Friday preparations<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Mexican Grand Prix takes place on Sunday, November 1, at 14:00 local time, corresponding to 20:00 GMT in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>GRANDE PR\u00caMIO<\/strong> is following every session of the Mexican Grand Prix this weekend, with breaking news, full coverage and real-time updates in its <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/\">Formula 1 section<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>George Russell admitted he is still struggling to understand his Mercedes after a difficult run of races, despite qualifying second and narrowly missing pole position to Lewis Hamilton in Mexico City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020319851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"George Russell and Lewis Hamilton","42wp_featured_image_credits":"Mercedes","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_ai_content_disclaimer":"","42wp_is_ai_content":false,"42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[{"id":31,"location":""}],"footnotes":"","42wp_hide_from_automatic":false,"42wp_breaking_news":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[17,63,16,963],"42wp_author":[31],"class_list":["post-4739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","tag-george-russell","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-mercedes","tag-mexican-grand-prix","42wp_author-bernardo-castro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4740,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739\/revisions\/4740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020319851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4739"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=4739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}