How Mercedes equalled its worst-ever F1 qualifying result at Belgian GP

Mercedes equalled its worst-ever result in 350 Formula 1 qualifying sessions ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix sprint race, which George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli will start from 13th and 20th.

The only time the Silver Arrows ever qualified so low on the grid coincidentally occurred at another sprint race, with Russell 15th and team-mate Lewis Hamilton down in 18th at the Red Bull Ring in 2023.

Antonelli failed to set a competitive lap time in sprint qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps after spinning into the gravel at the exit of Stavelot, ending up 3.6s off the pace.

Asked if the wind was the issue, the Italian rookie replied: “I don’t know, it was actually a pretty decent lap. I was around P4 and yeah, it just was weird because I lost it completely on exit.

“I just need to check, maybe a gust of wind, but it was quite weird the way I lost the car.

“The car felt good over that lap, so definitely confident for tomorrow. We’ll just try to reset and look for tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Russell easily made it through to SQ2 with fifth place in the first qualifying segment, but he eventually couldn’t do better than 13th, with a nine-tenth deficit on McLaren’s pacesetter Lando Norris in the session.

Russell lamented a “terrible” feeling from his Mercedes W16 and suggested his team-mate may have unintentionally played a part in his plight.

“We’ve had the pace all day,” Russell insisted. “In Q1 I ran over all that gravel, when Kimi went off; for the rest of that lap it felt terrible, the lap after it felt terrible, and then my lap in Q2 felt terrible.

“We saw some damage on the car; we need to see if that’s the reason, because obviously it’s a big shock to be out in Q2 and obviously the gap was so big. I’m sure that must be a factor.”

With only the top eight finishers scoring points in the sprint, Russell will need to find a way to gain the upper hand on five of his fellow competitors to be rewarded in the standings. He was optimistic that he could “make some progress tomorrow” but stopped short of expressing more bullish targets.