25/07/2025 19:50
George Russell has suggested gravel deposited on the
Spa-Francorchamps track by team-mate Kimi Antonelli may have
resulted in his early exit from sprint qualifying. Antonelli failed
to advance past the opening segment of qualifying on Friday and
ended the session in 20th place. His first effort saw him run wide
through Turn 14 and into the gravel before rejoining the circuit
and spreading stones across the racing line. Russell was one of the
first cars on the scene after Antonelli's mistake, and although he
was able to move into SQ2, he could not advance into the top 10
shootout. "We've had the pace all day," Russell said. "In Q1, I ran
over all that gravel when Kimi went off. "For the rest of that lap,
it felt terrible, the lap after felt terrible. My lap in Q2 felt
terrible. "We saw some damage on the car, we need to see if that's
the reason. "It's a big shock to be out in Q2 and the gap was so
big. I'm sure there's a reason for it. "But as soon as I went
through that gravel, the car didn't feel the same since." Russell's
suspicions seemed to be verified by Mercedes' trackside engineering
director Andrew Shovlin, who also suggested the gravel dumped by
Antonelli played a role in the early exit. "Kimi's spin on his
first lap of the session caused damage to the floor and diffuser,"
Shovlin said. "He got the car back on track and tried a second
effort, but the damage was so bad he couldn't set a competitive
time. "George was running not too far behind Kimi as he spun and
suffered some floor damage and gravel rash himself. "That was
likely a contributing factor in our disappointing performance in
SQ2, although we will look to see if there is anything we could
have done differently to extract more pace despite that."
