George Russell is not happy. Arriving in Suzuka as one of the favorites, the British driver was forced to face disappointment for the second consecutive qualifying session. In China, a clear technical issue had prevented him from challenging his increasingly dominant teammate Kimi Antonelli. This time, according to Russell, something else happened that pushed him off the right track. Not a true mechanical failure as in Shanghai, but a mistake in setup adjustments that cost him confidence behind the wheel of his extremely fast Mercedes, leaving him in second on the grid, three-tenths off pole position.
The problem that affected qualifying
“It was really strange, to be honest,” George Russell explained during the press conference. “We made a setup change just before qualifying, but the car didn’t feel the same as it had all weekend. You saw my first laps in Q1, when I ended up in seventh or eighth, so we had to adapt by making a significant adjustment to the front wing angle during qualifying (a setup change allowed even under parc fermé conditions). The team is already reviewing the data to understand more, but at the moment we don’t know if we did something wrong or what else happened. In a way, though, I’m happy to be in this position because after Q1 I didn’t know how qualifying would end.”
The championship leader then described how he struggled on track: “There was something problematic at the rear, especially noticeable through the Snake section. I couldn’t attack any of the corners; the rear was sliding constantly. Right now, there’s really nothing more we can do. It’s a good starting position for tomorrow, and the race will be long. It’s not ideal because I had felt comfortable with the car all weekend, but during qualifying something seems to have broken. We’ll see—maybe the data analysis will give us answers, maybe I can adapt my driving style to compensate—but this definitely wasn’t the session we wanted. Two tricky qualifying sessions in a row isn’t ideal.”
Watching McLaren and Ferrari closely
“To be honest, qualifying was very tight between Ferrari and McLaren, and that probably came as a bit of a surprise for us. We both had a very good FP3 session and thought we had a bit more margin over the rivals. Of course, we’re still in first and second positions, so that’s great, but it’s clear the others are closing in,” George Russell concluded after the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix qualifying session.
George Russell is left searching for answers after a last-minute technical adjustment cost him the chance to challenge for pole. Based on the content of his post-session debrief, the Mercedes driver will need to quickly recalibrate his driving style for Sunday’s race to defend against a resurgent Ferrari and McLaren while trying to overhaul his teammate.
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