Mercedes driver George Russell said his own slip caused the crash that ended his Singapore sprint, possibly hurting his qualifying pace.
Starting from the front, Russell surged ahead on the wet Marina Bay circuit, edging out pole‑sitter Max Verstappen, but a tiny run‑wide on the final corner sent him into the wall and out of the race.
His sprint qualifying pace earned him second on the grid, yet he could only manage sixth in the main session, a drop Russell attributes to a rushed rebuild of his Silver Arrow by the crew.
“Clearly a terrible day overall, and it stemmed from my own mistake,” Russell admitted.
“The car felt off. The rear was slipping, the tyres overheated, and everything spiralled down, whereas yesterday everything clicked,” he explained.
“When the team scrambles to reassemble the car, surprises happen – the floor probably wasn’t right after hitting the wall. Yesterday we were fast every lap; today we weren’t,” he added.
Wolff backed the theory, noting the squad still has work to do on the car’s finish.
“With George, the car was only ready at the last minute,” Wolff told Sky Germany. “The floor isn’t quite right, but overall it was a decent effort.”
Asked about his target, Russell was vague, noting a power‑unit penalty from his Sepang failure now places him at the back of the grid.
The 28‑year‑old noted Kimi Antonelli’s win from 19th in Italy, yet in Azerbaijan it took 17 laps to climb from 16th to the top ten, describing the Baku drive as “like his grandmother” on the streets.
When pressed on realistic hopes for the Singapore race, Russell said Mercedes is under pressure from Red Bull and Ferrari and he’s simply aiming for points, adding, “It’ll be very tough.”
“Kimi won from 19th once and only reached P10 from 16th another time. Same driver, same car, wildly different results. So I really can’t say,” he replied.
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