George Russell blamed overheating for his lack of pace in the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Despite qualifying third oܫn the grid, Russell ultimately finished the race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in𒐪 fifth.

Russell struggled with his tyres during꧋ the second stint💟 of the race after switching to the hards on Lap 21.

The Mercedes driver would lose out to 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Charles Leclerc into Turn 1 on Lap 38.

Just three laps later, he was overtaken by McLaren’s 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lando Norris.

While it cont🌼inued Russell’s consistent start to the year𝔉, never failing to finish outside the top five, it was damage limitation for the British driver.

Reflecting on the race in Saudi Arabia, Russell told Sky Sports: “It was all 🏅ab𓆏out the tyres. They were massively overheating. I was pushing hard to stay with Max at the beginning of the second stint but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold on. We fell off that cliff towards the end.

“I was dropping a second a lap in the last 15 laps. 🍃To be fair, we didn’t have the past and even if I had managed more I would have still come home P5. We know that is a bit of a weakness with our car at the moment.

“Coming home P5 on a bad day - weℱ will tak🥀e it but we need to try and improve it quickly.”

Mercedes need to understand tyre woes

Out of the leading seven cars from the top four teams, Russell see꧑me🥃d the only one to encounter tyre troubles.

Teammate168澳洲5最新开奖结果: Kimi Antonelli closed to within eight seconds by the end of the race as he fended off 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton behind.

Given that Bahrain is t🌺raditionally a challenging track for tyre wear, Russell was surprised to have struggled in Jeddah.

“It’s more about how fast we’re going through🤡 these corners,” Russell explained. “For 🍸whatever reason we’re generating more temperature than our rivals.

“Suddenly you get toꦓ a point where the tyres are like a balloon. We had blistering on the front, blistering at the rear, and then suddenly you’ve got no grip from the tyres.

“We need to understand why Bahrain was so positive because that’s also an overheating track but a dꦬifferent type of overheating to what you experience h🍎ere in Jeddah.

“We probably had higher hopes for the race tod𒉰ay than we had for Bahrain but it turned out the oppos💛ite. Something to understand.”