Russell admits Friday in Monaco 'more challenging than we would have hoped' after Mercedes trail Ferrari

George Russell has conceded that the opening day of track action at the Monaco Grand Prix proved “more challenging than we would have hoped”, with the Mercedes driver having ended Friday nearly four tenths off the pace of Lewis Hamilton in the leading Ferrari.

Ahead of the weekend in Monte Carlo, the Scuderia had been tipped as ones to watch by the likes of Kimi Antonelli – and it certainly appeared to be a promising Friday for the Italian outfit, as Charles Leclerc topped the timesheets in Free Practice 1 before Hamilton led the way in FP2.

Mercedes, meanwhile, did not appear to have the same kind of pace, with Antonelli and Russell ending the first practice hour in fourth and fifth respectively while they reversed those positions during the second session.

Reflecting back on how the day had gone for the Silver Arrows, Russell admitted that the team will look to make improvements following a tougher outing than they had anticipated.

“We expected Ferrari to be the guys to beat – a lot of people thought that was just chat, but clearly they are the team to beat,” the Briton said. “I think Red Bull have also been a bit of a surprise for us.

“We knew out of the races so far [that] this was going to be our most challenging – it’s probably been slightly more challenging than we would have hoped, but we did make some good improvements from FP1 into FP2.

“We need to make the same step again overnight, and I don’t think we nailed it today so there is room to improve, but definitely Ferrari are the team.”

Russell was 0.379s adrift of Hamilton in second practice, with Leclerc and Max Verstappen classified ahead of him.

Asked if he and the team have a clear direction for what they need to do overnight in order to be in the fight for pole position on Saturday, Russell responded: “I’ve got to be honest, the trends that we see with Ferrari every year – here and on street tracks – and what we’ve seen today have been there for probably 10 years.

“I think every car has like an inherent DNA, and their inherent DNA – especially on the mechanical side of the car – clearly works on these street tracks, especially when there’s a lot of warp in the corners, [where] the corner’s dropping away.

“We’re doing everything we can to try and make those improvements, but I do think we can close the gap. If we can overcome it, I’m not sure.”

Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord gave a reasonably positive assessment of how Mercedes’ first day of running had gone, but also acknowledged that there was still work to do going forward.

“It was a solid day, I think,” Lord explained. “We got plenty of laps in, did the programme we wanted to. [We were] able to work through some set-up changes as well, some options on how to bring the tyres in and get them working.

“Kimi was probably the more comfortable of the two drivers in FP1, and then that switched around and George was much happier with the basic handling of the car, even if there’s still some work to do on the balance and how to get it around the slow corners and not have the rear coming around at the same time.”

Lord also felt that the squad had a good direction for how to get both cars into the mix in Qualifying, adding: “I think Ferrari have obviously got to be firm favourites, and based on today’s running it’s their race to lose.

“They look like they have a turn of speed more than everyone else, but hopefully we can put ourselves in that battle and put ourselves in the mix – but I think we’ve got some clear things to work on.”