Mercedes driver George Russell was the only one to risk switching to dry tires in Saturday’s qualifying at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, riding a new set of softs for his final lap of Q3.
Several drivers had radioed in that the dry lane was beginning to be visible after the rain stopped during Q1 and allowed them to switch to intermediate tyres, but no one else followed the path of the young Briton.
However, Russell ‘s hopes of giving his rivals an upset were dashed almost instantly when he went wide at Turn 2, hitting the wall with his car’s rear wing.
This meant that the #63 finished the session in eighth place, 2.2 seconds behind polesitter Max Verstappen, who set the fastest lap on the intermediates at the end of the same session. His Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton finished fourth.
Russell said after qualifying that “I’m not here to settle for third or fourth”, acknowledging that the dry line that was appearing on the track had given him enough confidence to switch to dry compounds.
“We had a good car today, I saw the dry lane line appear and in those conditions it only takes one wet corner for everything to go wrong, and that was turns 1 and 2,” said the Briton.
“It happened last year in Sochi, when I was one of three drivers who went from the intermediates to the dry, and I was able to be third in a Williams.
“So yeah, it’s a high risk to take and a high reward to get. It wasn’t worth it today, but the race is tomorrow.”
Russell realized during his out lap that “it was going to be very difficult” to make the bet on dry compounds pay off. “I thought with a warm-up lap, that last lap might have been the right one, but sometimes it’s not easy,” he said.
“Like I said, I’m glad I went for it because I could have had a big payoff. I’ll be eighth in the end, it’s not the end of the world.”
The Mercedes driver admitted he should have pitted at the end of his out lap and switched to intermediates, believing he “could probably have made it to fourth position” with an extra lap, but he doesn’t regret the gamble.
“No, no, not at all,” Russell said. “I probably would have regretted more being third or fourth and not trying, to be honest.”
#63 explained that “half the track was totally dry” and there was a “little dry line” for the rest of the lap.
“Then the last quarter of the circuit, which was turn 1 and 2, was about to dry out yet,” Russell said. “As I said, it only takes one corner. In the end, yes, we are here to fight for more and we have the pace to come back tomorrow,” he concluded.
