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George Russell's Belgian Grand Prix weekend got off to a troubled start at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday, with Mercedes already digging into the data to understand why he finished second practice 1.2 seconds behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli. Antonelli topped the session with a 1m45.944s lap, while Russell — who sits 25 points adrift in the championship standings — managed only a 1m47.229s effort, ending the day eighth overall.
The gap tells only part of the story. Onboard footage and GPS data revealed Russell backed off the throttle through Les Combes at Turn 7, costing him exit speed. That slower corner speed then compounded through Pouhon and the Fagnes S section, where the two Mercedes drivers initially matched each other before Russell appeared to exhaust his energy deployment earlier. He also registered a lower top speed between Blanchimont and the Bus Stop chicane — a critical deficit on a power-sensitive circuit.
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin traced the root causes to cold tyres at the start of Russell's qualifying simulation lap and a faulty homologated fuel flow meter in FP1 that left him down on power relative to Antonelli. Both Mercedes drivers also ran the wrong set-up direction in the opening session, leaving them sixth and eighth. The FFM issue has since been resolved. Shovlin noted that Spa's high average speeds magnify any energy deployment losses, describing it as an energy-starved circuit similar to Silverstone under 2026's power unit regulations.
With the summer break looming after this double-header, Russell cannot afford to surrender more ground. Shovlin was confident the fixes are clear: the team can see the deficits in the data and expects Russell to bounce back in Saturday qualifying. Follow the action live at our race centre.