George Russell admitted Mercedes’ performance in Friday practice at the F1 Monaco Grand Prix was the♏ir slowest of the 2025 sea🌱son so far.

Russell was 12th-fastest in the final FP2 classification, over 0.7s off the pace set by Ferrari’s 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Charles Leclerc.

Mercedes teammate 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Kimi Antonelli didn’t fare much better, setting the ninth-fastest time, 0.6s off t♋he best time of the session.

Mercedes had high hopes goin꧙g into this weekend due♉ to their qualifying form.

In the hands of Russel👍l, Mercedes have consistently🔯 qualified well this year.

ꦯRussell hasn’t failed to out-qualify outside the top five at any rac🎶e in 2025.

Howeve🐟r, based on Friday, Mercedes will need a significant overnight improve✅ment to challenge McLaren and Ferrari.

Reflecting on Friday in the principality, Russe🐼ll🐲 said: “It’s always intense around Monaco. I mean, the track isn’t quite big enough for 20 F1 cars. As our mate

Yuki [Tsunoda] says, traffic paradise aroun🐭d the track and it’s kind of how it was today.

“It’s always amazing driving around here. We weren’t very quick today but tomorrow is usually the main day but this weekend with the mandat🍰ed two-stop it will be inte༒resting.

“You’ve seen some teams already throw away the hard tyre which was a bit 🍸of a surprise to us so that sort of shows what they’re looking likely to 𓃲do a different plan than what we were expecting. It will be interesting.”

Russell hopes for 2024-like turnaround

Russell was in a similar position last year.

The Mercedes drive♛r was nine-tenths off Leclerc in🦩 FP2 at the 2024 Monaco GP.

Come qualifying, Russe🌌ll was just 0.2s off pole and settled for fifth on the grid.

“In terms of pure performance it’s probably been our slowest Friday,” Russ🧸ell added. “To be honest, we had a bad Friday here last year and we were only a tenth off pole in the end. Still all to play for and I am still pretty excited to see how Sunday will plan out.

“Even if we’re not in the top five, top three tomorrow, I still think there maybe a bit of a chance 🦹on Sunday, especially first time being as it is this year. We will keep our hopes alive.”

Russell currently sits fourth in th💝e 2025 F1 drivers’ standings on 99 points, 47 points off Oscar Piastri.