'There was nothing more we could have done' – Russell declares Mercedes ‘deserved to finish’ fifth at Monza

George Russell endured another frustrating outing as Mercedes struggled to keep up with Ferrari in the Italian Grand Prix, leaving him to drive a lonely race on his way to fifth in Monza.

The first part of Qualifying gave the Briton hope that they could challenge other teams more effectively as he topped the timesheets on a set of medium tyres. However, Mercedes elected to switch to the soft compound for his final lap in Q3 despite his protests, and he settled for P5.

Like the other drivers in the top five, Russell’s position hadn’t changed by the time the chequered flag fell, despite his early attempts to overtake the lead Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Every time he closed the gap, it opened up again as they raced down the straights.

“We were expecting to be two-tenths behind Ferrari and a bit more behind everyone else,” he admitted after the race. “I was reasonably pleased – I don’t think we could have done anything more.

“I think it was just very challenging to get by Charles – they were so fast on the straights. Had I just managed to get past him, it could have been a slightly different picture. Obviously that wasn’t the case. It was a pretty scrappy opening few laps, but fifth was where the car deserved to finish today.

“Obviously a bit of a shame to lose more ground to Ferrari in the constructors’, but I was pretty satisfied with the race.”

The Brackley outfit are now 20 points behind their Italian rivals in the standings, with Kimi Antonelli adding two points to the tally in his second home event of the season.

Recovering from a damaging spin in FP2, the 19-year-old secured sixth place on the grid and impressed his home crowd, with both Mercedes drivers benefitting from Lewis Hamilton’s five-place grid penalty.

However, a lacklustre start to the race saw Antonelli lose a handful of positions before he was later handed a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits multiple times.

He said: “It was a difficult race. I made a mistake at the start and lost brake traction, so lost a lot of places there and that compromised pretty much the [whole] race because I found myself on the back foot and in a DRS train.

“It was difficult to get by. The pace on the mediums was actually not too bad, but then on the hards, I struggled to find my rhythm. I just need to focus on the next one and try to deliver a better job.”