George Russell reflects on ‘really up and down day’ as Mercedes search for soft tyre pace in Australia

George Russell was left to reflect on an "up and down" day as neither he or team mate Kimi Antonelli were able to challenge the top order with soft tyre pace on Friday in Australia.

The Mercedes pairing ended FP2 for the Australian Grand Prix down in 10th and 16th positions, with Russell the higher-placed driver, albeit 0.843s back on Charles Leclerc’s session-topping 1m 16.439s.

REPORT: FP2: Leclerc sets the pace ahead of Piastri and Norris during second practice in Australia

Despite this deficit, Russell maintained that there is pace in the W15, and pointed to the strong pace shown on both the hard and medium tyre compounds.

“It was a really up and down day because every time that we had the medium or the hard tyre on, we were right in the top two of the timesheets – every lap felt good and I was confident,” said Russell. “Then we put the soft on and we didn’t go much quicker.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 14: George Russell of Great Britain driving the (63) Mercedes AMG — Russell was left to reflect on an 'up and down' first day in Melbourne

“Clearly, there is a bit of pace in the car and it’s just about getting the most out of the tyre, so we need to understand why that is.”

Russell had finished Friday’s opening session in seventh while narrowly avoiding late contact with the wall at Turn 4 after clipping the grass, a moment that he put down to “pushing the limits a little bit too much”.

Assessing Mercedes’ chances of being in contention to top the podium on Sunday, Russell added: “Let’s see what we can achieve overnight. If the session had stopped after the hard tyre and if the session had stopped after the medium tyre in FP1, I’d have said definitely, we’re there or thereabouts.

“But obviously, you don’t qualify on the hard or medium tyre, you qualify on the soft tyre, and we don’t seem so competitive on that one. I’m sure we’ll find some improvements tonight.”

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Prior to the start of the season, Antonelli had suggested that adapting to the narrow working window of Pirelli’s F1 tyre compounds would be the biggest challenge he would face this year.

Pirelli has brought the C3, C4 and C5 compounds to Albert Park, with the C5 being the second softest option in the range.

“The C5 is a compound that I’ve never really used, so definitely, I’m learning it,” said Antonelli. “The warm-up is quite tricky, but we’ve got some good data ahead of tomorrow.”