George Russell fumes at “fundamental” Mercedes error results in Q1 exit

George Russell lamented Mercedes' “fundamental error” after he didn't have enough fuel to compete at the end of F1 qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Russell was a surprise early exit at the Hungaroring as he returned to the pit lane as track conditions improved in Q1.

The Mercedes driver was one of the first drivers back out on track following the red flag period.

After improving up the order, Russell returned to the pit lane as the rest of the field - aside from the Alpines and Perez - circulated. 

This proved to be the wrong decision as a number of drivers improved, demoting Russell into the drop-zone.

Russell initially took responsibility for the Q1 exit: "Yeah. Sorry about this session, guys. It's on me."

Before voicing his frustration to the team over team radio: "Why are we not putting enough fuel in the car to complete the session?"

Speaking after the session, Russell explained the two factors behind his surprise Q1 exit.

“There were two factors - the first was I didn’t do a good enough job at the beginning and that was why I was down in P15,” he said. “And the next one was we put the new tyres on at the end and we didn’t have enough fuel to complete the session.

“We were on track when it was wettest, and when it was dry we had no fuel. It was a disaster from both aspects. We should have got through comfortably on that last lap but we had no fuel. That was on me for being in that situation in the first place.”

Russell will have his work cut out as he looks to recover into the points as he’s set to start from 17th.

Addressing the lack of fuel, Russell described it as a “fundamental” error.

“It was not our usual standard for sure,” he added. “We need to go through it and we need to understand what happened on my side in the beginning.

“Having enough fuel for the whole session is fundamental, so as a team we made a big error.”