Russell: Mercedes have ‘questions that need answering’ 

• F1 2023 Miami Grand Prix - Full Qualifying Results

Mercedes struggled for pace in qualifying but Russell was able to sneak through into the top-10 shootout on his way to securing sixth on the grid behind Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

Russell’s teammate Lewis Hamilton suffered a shock Q2 elimination and will start down in 13th. 

The 25-year-old Briton admitted the result, aided by Charles Leclerc’s session-ending crash, was “very flattering”. 

“I wouldn’t necessarily say quite pleased, of course I’ll take the result, it’s a very flattering result for the performance that we showed,” Russell told Sky. 

"I did a really decent lap in Q2 to just scrape through, just to get into Q3 and that’s not where we should be. 

“Everybody is working so, so hard to bring more performance to the car, it’s definitely not for a lack of effort and it’s just not coming to us at the moment. 

“So there’s a lot to think about. A few questions that need answering.”

Russell stressed that Mercedes “need to think about the bigger picture” in their bid to close their substantial deficit to Red Bull, who have dominated the start of the season. 

“It’s a theme of us that we generally have a better Sunday than we do on Saturday,” he added. 

“Obviously got the Alpine and Haas around us, hopefully we can get past them, and Ferrari tend to struggle a bit more on Sunday. 

“We’ll focus on tomorrow, but we need to think about the bigger picture and how we’re gonna bring that fight to the guys at the top.” 

There is a strong possibility that Russell and Max Verstappen will cross paths one week after their spat following a collision during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix sprint race. 

The world championship leader will start only ninth after making a rare mistake in Q3 before Leclerc shunted and brought qualifying to a premature end. 

Asked how quickly he expects to see Verstappen in his mirrors, Russell said: “Pretty quickly I’m sure. 

“I don’t know. It’s difficult for everybody. Everybody is working so hard to get up there. 

“We’ll try and put in a fight with whoever is around us, but we’ll see what we can do.”