The Mercedes driver secured fourth place in Q3, which can develop into third on the ultimate grid because of Carlos Sainz’s penalty.
He outpaced his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who didn’t progress to the ultimate session after taking eleventh in Q2, with the seven-time world champion additionally achieve set to realize a spot from Sainz.
Russell believes that graining shall be such a giant difficulty that beginning positions shall be comparatively meaningless come the tip of the night.
“Proud of the consequence,” he mentioned when requested by Autosport about his session. “I felt assured round this circuit. We weren’t anticipating to be this aggressive coming into this weekend.
“However to be sincere, as unusual because it sounds I wasn’t too involved about the place we certified in the present day, so long as we had been within the prime 10.
“As a result of it’s the largest unknown of the season going into the race tomorrow, we noticed large quantities of graining on all groups.
“For those who can keep inside the threshold of not graining a one-stop shall be comfy. However as quickly as you begin graining the tyres, it’s important to pit. And I do not assume we have carried out greater than 12 laps with out graining the tyres. In order that’s going to be the large problem.”
Requested if he knew tips on how to lengthen the helpful lifetime of the tyres, he mentioned: “Properly, you may drive slower, and that can handle the tyres, however you may get attacked from behind.
Photograph by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14
“We have some indication of which corners we have to handle. However I had it in a single run, it was the entrance tyres that obtained grained, for the subsequent run it was the rear tyres grained. And it is actually on a knife’s edge.
“Ferrari look in a league of their very own. They have not had any graining, they usually’ve been super-fast on the excessive gas.
“However equally because the monitor grips up tomorrow, perhaps we’ll see graining in stint one, however you will not see it in stint two and three, as a result of the monitor might be going to be three seconds faster within the final laps, in comparison with the early laps. In all probability much more.
“As a result of we have no assist collection, no nothing. The monitor’s going be a catastrophe within the first 5 laps of the race.”
Hamilton, in the meantime, mentioned that he was missing “confidence and grip” as he struggled to match the tempo of his team-mate.
Requested if set-up variations may clarify the hole he mentioned: “There are variations. There all the time are variations. However I simply struggled.
“Yesterday it was feeling higher, and I used to be extra aggressive. After which we made some modifications in a single day, and it did not really feel nice in the present day. So this automotive is a bit on a knife-edge.
“We’re all on low wing. So there’s going to be a variety of deg, there could also be extra deg than we all know. Nobody’s pushed the exhausting tyre but.
“Max [Verstappen] has two hards, two mediums, we’ve got one medium and two hards. So it is going to be an extended race, and it is going to be about actually managing degradation, I’d say.”