Kimi Antonelli admission about controversial George Russell pole lap | F1 | Sport

But then Russell, 28, leapfrogged both of them despite passing yellow flags where Verstappen’s Red Bull was buried in the barrier. He was investigated but quickly cleared of wrongdoing as, like he said, he had lifted off the throttle as soon as he saw yellow flags. Single flags were initially shown which were upgraded to double-waved yellow after around 15 seconds, by which point Russell and team-mate Kimi Antonelli had passed through.

Russell said: “The lap was unbelievable. I came across the single yellow flag in the final sector but I did a 100-metre lift and lost a huge amount of time. I went into the corner 0.5 seconds up and I came out 0.25 seconds up. I’m glad common sense prevailed there. I did everything right to be very much in control of the car.”

His rewards is pole position, while title rival and championship leader Antonelli is fourth on the grid after misinterpreting the signals. He was closer to Verstappen on track and had less time to react when the Red Bull went spinning off.

Antonelli, 19, said: “I thought it was a double yellow. I aborted completely and missed the front row. I shouldn’t have done that.
“It was my mistake. It would have been very close with George. He would have been a little bit ahead but it would have been front row.”

Team boss Toto Wolff chalked that up to a learning experience for the teenager, and said he was “proud” of how Russell used his experience to nail his response. Neither Ferrari driver was too aggrieved, with Leclerc simply happy to be back in the groove again after a difficult run including several crashes in recent weeks.

And Hamilton, 41, wanted to focus more on the progress made with a new engine and setup changes after a difficult first day. He stayed late at the track on Friday night with his race engineer and was pleased that their changes had a positive impact. Though he is pessimistic about his chances of making it back-to-back victories on Sunday.

Hamilton said: “Mercedes have been very, very quick this weekend. I think on pure pace, it will be very, very hard to do. With strategy, maybe there’s an opportunity. But I think it’s a tall order to try to win. We’ve got to maximise points for the team and try to keep one of the Mercedes’ behind if we can. If we can get both of them, that would be mega.”

Russell also name-checked Verstappen, who starts fifth despite his crash, as more of a threat in his eyes than the Ferraris. He said: “Max was out, and Kimi backed off. I think I would have been three or four tenths further ahead but those guys, having looked at it, were nip and tuck with me. The three of us clearly had a step more than the Ferraris and McLarens.”