George Russell got his Mercedes engine in a spin in a costly glitch as he missed out on Sprint pole in Qatar.

Formula 1 is contesting its final Sprint weekend of the F1 2024 campaign in Qatar, where Norris found Russell in the Mercedes as his closest challenger for P1 on the grid for the Sprint event. Russell ultimately fell just 0.063s short and was left ruing what could have been after he “confused” the engine in his Mercedes W15.

George Russell suffers Fernando Alonso-style engine glitch

It was not until his final push lap for pole that Russell didn’t lift an inch through the high-speed flowing sections in Qatar, something which the Mercedes engine clearly was not prepared for.

This was not the first time that a driver has suffered from an engine glitch, as this happened to Fernando Alonso back in 2017 after taking Spa’s Pouhon corner flat out for the first time, Honda’s energy deployment system failing and costing Alonso what he estimated to be half a second.

“I went flat through the high speed for the first time on my final lap in Q3 and confused the engine a little bit,” Russell revealed after Qatar Sprint qualifying.

“I don’t know how much I lost, but I had a big recharge on the exit of the corner because I went through it flat.

“It’s way too technical for this interview, but that was a bit annoying when I just nailed it and then I lost a load of speed on the exit. But I think Lando was just a smidge out of reach.”

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Mercedes came into the Qatar Grand Prix with major momentum after a dominant one-two result last time out in Qatar, with Russell’s Sprint qualifying performance confirming the Silver Arrows are in the mix again this weekend.

And Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff had Qatar’s Lusail International Circuit down as a more competitive track for his team than Las Vegas.

Asked by Sky F1 whether it is true that he predicted Qatar to be the stronger track for Mercedes versus Las Vegas ahead of these events, Wolff replied: “We did, yes.

“And unfortunately, in FP1, it didn’t look like our predictions were right, but at the end, we got it together.”

While Russell will start the Qatar Sprint from the front row, team-mate Lewis Hamilton, like in Las Vegas, will look to come through the pack from P7 on the grid.

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