Qualifying for the Imola Grand Prix they saw a solid George Russell place in P6 just one thousandth behind Carlos Sainz's Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton is in a bit of difficulty and will start tomorrow in P8, behind a splendid Tsunoda, galvanized by the fact of racing in the home Grand Prix of the Visa Cash App RB. Currently, it seems that Mercedes' rivals are racing another championship.
The Anglo-German team struggles to keep up with Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. However, we must not forget that at Brackley they seem to have understood where to work to improve the car: in fact they are expected others update relating to areas that are not functioning as they should. James Allison explained that the problems have been fixed and that from this moment we can begin to set up a performance recovery program.
In any case, Lewis Hamilton was certainly not enthusiastic after yet another difficult qualifying which ended behind his garage colleague. The Briton appeared quite confused about the performance of the W15, while his teammate spoke of the maximum result the team could aspire to, demonstrating the fact that the top three team for now they are much better performing than Mercedes.
![Mercedes qualifying Imola](https://www.formulacritica.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_0714-jpg.webp)
But let's read the words of the protagonists in detail.
Hamilton: “Yesterday's performance faded”
A Hamilton who cannot explain how the good performance seen yesterday has disappeared today. Lewis didn't have a good feeling with his car.
“I think it will be a difficult race,” He says. “Yesterday we had two good free practice sessions, the car seemed to be working well. Today, however, everything has vanished."
He then adds: “Today I fought more with my car than my rivals”.
![Mercedes qualifying Imola](https://www.formulacritica.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_0713-jpg.webp)
Regarding tomorrow's race, the seven-time world champion hopes to overtake Yuki Tsunoda at the start, in order to set up a good grand prix.
“It will be a difficult match. If I could overtake Tsunoda at the start it would be fantastic, and then if George and I could maintain those positions or even progress it would be even more fantastic."
Russell: “Sixth place, maximum result to aspire to today”
A Russell, on the other hand, was more satisfied with the result obtained, also aware of the limitations of the machine.
“I sincerely believe that for us today, sixth place was the best result we could aspire to. I was happy at the end of the ride,” says George.
The driver born in 1998, seeing McLaren's extraordinary progress, is confident about the future of his team. According to him, McLaren is now on par with Red Bull.
![Mercedes qualifying Imola](https://www.formulacritica.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/George-Russell-jpg.webp)
“Impressive to see McLaren on par with Red Bull. Ferrari is half a step behind them, but we are half a step behind Ferrari. It's motivating to see what McLaren is doing and we should try to repeat it."
Crediti foto: Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team