George Russell believes he could have achieved pole position during qualifying for the F1 Hungarian GP had it not been for his own overconfidence.
Russell ended his qualifying for the Hungarian GP in fourth position, completing a lap time that was just 0.053s off of Charles Leclerc’s pole-deciding lap.
Russell: Mercedes missed an opportunity for pole
With rising wind levels and dropping temperatures, conditions during qualifying for the F1 Hungarian GP were increasingly unpredictable. These cooler temperatures seemed to work in Mercedes’ favour, with other teams struggling in the tricky conditions – but Russell admits he failed to capitalise on it.
“Mixed feelings, to be honest,” he said of his qualifying session. “I think this morning, if you offered me P4 half a tenth off, I would have probably done anything to have taken that.
“But Q3 was really challenging, the wind really picked up, everybody went slower, and that’s why I’m sort of kicking myself.”
Despite feeling as though he could have placed higher on the grid, Russell recognises that Mercedes was strong on Saturday.
“But actually, when I look at it objectively, we were the team who lost the least amount of time. McLaren went six tenths slower, we went a tenth slower. So I’m trying to see the positives of it.
“But of course, I feel a little bit… [it’s a] small missed opportunity.”
Russell forced to adapt to tricky conditions at F1 Hungarian GP
When asked how the unpredictable conditions in Hungary affected his lap time, Russell admitted that most of his driving is based on instinct. While he was completing a strong lap at the end of Q3, a touch of overconfidence caused him to lose time in the final sector.
“I’m usually trying to rely on the flags to see what the wind is doing, and it’s been pretty consistent this whole weekend,” he said. “And I saw when I started my lap, the wind had shifted slightly. The flags were gusting a lot stronger.
“So I knew it was different. But when you’ve got that one lap, you don’t really know how hard to push and how much to react to that. So I lost it in that last corner. I should have been a little bit more conservative, but that’s so easy to say in hindsight. And I’m sure half the grid is probably saying that from Q3.”
Russell’s W16 seemed to react well to track temperatures cooling under cloudy conditions, but he states that drivers can never truly be comfortable with how the track might feel at different points in the session.
“You’re trying to always react to what the track is doing, but you’re sort of always stepping into the unknown because it’s gripping up,” he said.
“You know what was working in practice or in Q1 or Q2, but now it’s totally different and you’ve almost got to scrap what you’ve learned. And you’ve got to be brave enough to adapt to something new. And sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Speaking about track temperatures for the race on Sunday, Russell stated that cooler conditions would certainly benefit Mercedes.
“These are definitely better conditions for us. Whenever it cools down, it’s good. I was quite concerned ahead of qualifying because [the track temperature] was 55 degrees. And I saw that cloud coming over, I was like ‘happy days’.
“And then it dropped down to like mid-30s, which is sort of our ideal condition. So, something around mid-30s for the track temperature would be good.”
Russell: “We all did a bad job” at F1 Hungarian GP qualifying
Qualifying at the 2025 F1 Hungarian GP was the closest it’s ever been in the sport’s history, with just 0.543s covering the top ten. However, Russell argued that this was likely down to the fact that no driver performed very well during the session.
“That’s a great stat, but the reality is, you know, when you look at the PB lap times of all the drivers in the session, McLaren did a 14.8, I did a 15.3, Charles did a 15.1 [Leclerc did a 1:15.4],” he said.
“So in Q3, actually, we kind of all equally did a bad job, if you know what I mean. We all went slower because of the conditions changing. And usually you expect Q3 to be the quickest of the weekend, and it wasn’t.”
Russell anticipating fight with Leclerc for podium position at F1 Hungarian GP
While McLaren did not manage to clinch pole in Saturday’s session, Russell stated that he expects the papaya-coloured cars to be out of Mercedes’ eyeline for much of the race. Instead, he expects to be fighting with Leclerc for a spot on the podium – though with the unusually-quick Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll close behind, it’s tough to call.
“McLaren, every single lap they’ve done this weekend, bar Q3, they’ve been the dominant force,” he said. “So I’d be shocked if we’re fighting with them tomorrow.”
He continued: “I think the fact is Q3 was just a very unique session. And as I said, every lap this whole weekend, McLaren have been on average sort of three or four tenths ahead of Leclerc and seven tenths ahead of the rest of them. So they clearly underperformed in Q3 and probably P4 for us was a fair result.
“Obviously, Max is unusually out of position. And Aston Martin all weekend have been unusually strong as well. They’ve been doing a really great job.
“So the fact is we don’t really know. I hope the fight can be for a podium, but realistically that’s against Charles and not against McLaren.”
