George Russell is a little disappointed about missing out on pole, but he’s much more satisfied with his performance after the summer break than he was before
George Russell beat all his rivals from McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull in qualifying for the Formula 1 race at Monza—and yet it still wasn’t enough for the Mercedes driver to secure pole position. Somewhat surprisingly, Alpine driver Pierre Gasly snatched the top spot on the grid for the Italian Grand Prix.
Russell had taken the top spot shortly before the end, but was ultimately beaten by Gasly by 0.060 seconds. While he says he’s genuinely happy for the Frenchman, he’s still “naturally disappointed that we aren’t on pole ourselves.”
This also had to do with Max Verstappen, who thwarted Mercedes’ planned slipstream tactic and tried to squeeze in between Kimi Antonelli and Russell, but ended up holding them up because Antonelli didn’t want to let the Red Bull pass.
“He wanted to draft, Kimi was there too, and I drove my lap one and a half seconds behind Max—which wasn’t ideal,” says Russell, while Mercedes believes that it was precisely this move that cost the Briton pole position at Monza.
“However, that doesn’t take anything away from Pierre’s performance,” he emphasizes. “They were flying all day, were the fastest in Q1, and were right up there from the start. They looked strong all weekend.”
In fact, Gasly had certainly hinted at the A526’s potential with the fastest time in Q1, but at what point did Russell even begin to perceive the Alpine as a threat? “We’ve often seen in Q1 that some midfield teams put in competitive laps,” he says. “You’ve seen that a few times with VCARB, for example, where they were in the top three at the start of a session.”
Will Gasly be a contender on Sunday?
Russell therefore admits that he didn’t read too much into that first fastest time. “I don’t think we would have thought they’d be fighting for pole,” he says. “And it just shows what a fantastic job he and his team did to take pole—and he was one of the few drivers who was able to improve on his time on the very last lap.”
GHOST CAR
Ride onboard with George Russell to see how close he got to Pierre Gasly in the battle for pole ⚔️F1 ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/VTfWbHdUMp
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 5, 2026
“That was really quite impressive.”
But the race is, of course, a whole different story. Russell knows that starting from second on the grid gives him every chance of winning, even though he fully expects an “interesting battle” with Gasly. “I think they have a car with very good top speed on the straights, which will work in their favor during the race.”
“I don’t know exactly how the battle will play out tomorrow, but I’m confident that I have the pace to contend for the win,” said the Briton.
No Thoughts on the World Championship
If he manages to achieve a good result in the race, that could, of course, provide another boost toward the world championship title. He currently trails his teammate Antonelli by 59 points; Antonelli will start the race from 20th on the grid due to an engine penalty at Monza.
However, Russell will also receive another penalty this season—“hopefully by the time we have the update on the car, which should make catching up a bit easier than it is now,” he says.
But he’s not wasting any thoughts on the World Championship right now. “I’m focusing solely on my performance, and this has been a very strong weekend so far,” said the Mercedes driver. “We didn’t quite nail it at the decisive moment, but we were in the top 3 in every single session throughout the entire weekend.”
“And back in Zandvoort, I was on the front row for both the Sprint and the main race. So I’m very happy with this momentum since the summer break.”
Before the break, Russell went through a difficult phase in which he was often further back in the field and lost ground to Antonelli in the World Championship. “Coming back from this break and simply finding my rhythm again makes me really happy. Of course, the win will be very important, but I’m almost even happier about the pure performance.”