George Russell calls Monaco GP Friday “our slowest” - but “still all to play for”
George Russell reflects on a tough day for Mercedes🍃 at the 2025 🌳F1 Monaco Grand Prix

George Russell admitted Mercedes’ performance in Friday practice at the F1 Monaco Grand Prix was their slowest of🀅 the 2025 season so far.
Russell was 12th-fastest in the final FP2 classification, over 0.7s off the pace set by Ferrari’s 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Charles Leclerc.
Mercedes teammate 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Kimi Antonelli didn’t fare much better, setting the ninth-fast🌳est time, 0.6s off the best time of the se🐼ssion.
Mercedes had high hopes going into this weekenℱd due to their qualifying form.
In the han𝐆ds of Russell, Mercedes have consistently qualified well t𝕴his year.
Russell ha꧟sn’t failed to out-qualify outside the top five at any race in 2025.
However, based on Friday, Merced🦂es will need a significant overnight improvement to challenge McLaren and Ferrari.
Reflecting on Friday in the principality🉐, Russell said: “It’s always intense around Monaco. I mean, the track isn’t qꩵuite big enough for 20 F1 cars. As our mate
Yuki [Ts𝓀unoda] says, traf💞fic paradise around the track and it’s kind of how it was today.
“It’s always amazing driving around here. We weren’t very quick today but tomorrow is usually the main day buꦚt this weekend with the mandated two-stop it wil🔜l be interesting.
“You’ve seen some teams already throw away the hard tyre which was a bit of a surprise to us so that sort of 🧜shows what they’re looking likely to do a different plan than what we were expecting. ♍It will be interesting.”
Russell hopes for 2024-like turnaround
Russell was in a similar position last year.
The Mercedes driver was nine-💜tentꦉhs off Leclerc in FP2 at the 2024 Monaco GP.
Come qualifying, Russell was just 0.2s off pole and settled for�🦂� fifth on the grid.
“In terms of pure perfor🐬mance it’s probably been our slowest Friday,” Russell added. “To be honest, we had a bad Friday here last year and we were only a tenth off pole in the end. Still all to play for and I am still pretty excited to see how Sunday will plan out.
“Even if we’re not in the top five, top three tomorr💫ow, I still think there maybe a ☂bit of a chance on Sunday, especially first time being as it is this year. We will keep our hopes alive.”
Russell currently sits fourth in the ♒2025 F1 ဣdrivers’ standings on 99 points, 47 points off Oscar Piastri.

With a sharp eye for F1’s controver🌊sies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbias🌸ed reporting.