George Russell believes Mercedes is “definitely in the fight” for top positions at the Austrian Grand Prix, despite a difficult opening day of running in Spielberg.
Both Russell and team-mate Lewis Hamilton had their Q3 sessions end with crashes into the barriers.
Despite his own incident, Russell ended qualifying in fifth place, while Hamilton was shuffled down to 10th by the chequered flag.
Mercedes displayed strong pace throughout the day at the Red Bull Ring, with Russell describing the team’s performance, aside from the outcome, as its best of the year so far.
“We ordinarily have better race pace than we do qualifying pace,” Russell said.
“We’re definitely there in the fight. As a team probably our best qualifying of the year in terms of pace, but probably the worst in terms of outcome.
“That’s racing, I’m personally going through a tricky couple of races at the moment but we’ve got tomorrow to make up for it.”
Russell’s crash occurred just minutes after the session was restarted following Hamilton’s shunt.
The former Williams driver lost control of his car on a hot lap as he rounded the final corner, with the rear of the W13 challenger hitting the wall.
Russell admits that he has concerns over the damage to his car ahead of the remainder of the weekend.
“We know that we’ve brought some things to the car, we know that Ferrari and Red Bull were probably pushing the boundaries with the planks a bit more than the interpretation and probably these things coming together has come in our favour,” Russel said.
“I’m not getting carried away, Lewis was doing a phenomenal job, he was absolutely flying today.
“I’m not too sure, I think I probably went the wrong way with the set-up for qualifying but maybe in a good place for the race.
“I feel OK physically, I’m just a bit concerned about the car and if we can recover it.”
