Russell shares ‘the big question mark’ facing drivers ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix

George Russell has shared his concerns around “the big question mark” that will impact the rest of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, with the Mercedes driver predicting that tyre degradation will play a significant role.

After admitting that his team mate Kimi Antonelli, who leads the standings by 66 points, has done “a better job” this season, Russell went on to top the times in the first hour of practice at the brand-new Madring.

He then dropped to P5 behind the Italian, the Ferrari pair and Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad in FP2, and later offered his thoughts on getting to grips with the latest addition to the calendar.

“It was very fun driving the track for the first time,” he said. “It’s always a great experience driving a new circuit. FP1 was a strong session. FP2 we made some set-up changes – it wasn’t quite as good, so we’ll probably revert back on that. So far, so good.

“I think there’s a big question mark over the tyre degradation. In FP1 with the tyre degradation we all had, we think a six-stop race would probably have been the fastest way!

“I don’t think anybody’s going to do a six-stop race on Sunday and I’m sure tyre deg will be better, but with that big long corner – La Monumental – it really hurts the tyres. That’s going to be a real challenge for everyone.”

La Monumental is arguably the most striking feature of the Madring with its extreme banking and horseshoe shape, but FP1 and FP2 showed that it can be punishing for both the drivers and their tyres.

Mercedes Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord appeared less concerned about regular tyre degradation, focusing instead on the loss of running that came as a result of Lindblad’s crash on Friday afternoon.

“You could see some unusual tyre effects just because they’re going to be running so hot,” he explained. “You’ve got a lot of cornering sequences without a real chance for the tyres to have a breather around the lap.

“It’s not like it’s corner, long straight, corner – it’s corner after corner after corner. How the tyres cope with that is going to be decisive, so even though it’s a very smooth surface and wear may not be as high as we might expect, we might see some other thermal effects that could push you into more stops than the computers before might expect you to make.

“I think it was a very solid day and a good feeling. We’ve come out of Monza with a bit of a spring in our step and need to reset and then tick all the boxes on a busy Friday. It was good to see both drivers up there in both sessions.

“We didn’t really see the single lap play out in FP2 because of the crash, and then that curtailed the long runs so again, it leaves us with more unknowns than maybe we’d like as F1 teams going into the race on Sunday. That generally produces the unexpected and something exciting for the fans.”