George Russell has stated that a promising Saturday at the Marina Bay Street Circuit left Mercedes with the impression he could have achieved more than what was ultimately possible in the Singapore Grand Prix.
George Russell has claimed Mercedes' pace in qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix made the team believe it could do better than the fourth-place finish he achieved.
The 26-year-old started and ended the race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in that position, after benefitting from Lewis Hamilton's alternate tyre strategy, but losing out to the pace of Oscar Piastri's McLaren.
Friday proved a tough test for Russell, with the Briton explaining how his W15 was not as "well connected" around the streets of Singapore as previous Mercedes challengers.
However, after going second-fastest in FP3, the two-time grand prix winner locked out the second row of the grid with his team-mate in qualifying, something that gave the team falsely inflated expectations for the race.
"After a very difficult Friday, we would have likely taken P4 in the Grand Prix," Russell explained in a statement after missing his media duties. "Our pace in Qualifying, however, made us believe we could achieve more.
"Today was no doubt a difficult race for us, both challenging in terms of our pace but also physically."
