Russell confused by "strange" US GP qualifying: "I've been off the pace..."

Russell ultimately qualified fifth at the Circuit of the Americas, a couple of tenths behind teammate Lewis Hamilton.

It looked at points like Russell was going to fail to make it into Q3 after struggling with the handling of the W14, particularly at low-speed corners.

Speaking after qualifying on Friday, Russell conceded he didn’t know why he was struggling, labelling the session as “strange”.

"For me it's been a really challenging day. I've been off the pace and I don't really know why. I've been feeling quite good with the update and can feel the improvements.

"A bit of a strange day for me, so I'm actually pretty pleased with P5. At some points it was looking likely that we weren't going to get to Q3.

"I take those positives, try and work on it. Sprint qualifyings tend to go better than the Friday evenings, apart from Qatar.”

Mercedes tend to fare better on race day typically in F1 2023, with Russell optimistic of a strong afternoon from P5 on the grid - when it could have been much worse.

"I will take it on my shoulders on being off the pace and struggling to understand why. Q3 was a reasonable lap. I made a bit of a mistake at Turn 1 that probably cost me one position on the grid,” he added.

"All in all, P5 is a great place to start on Sunday when it was looking like we would have been much further down the order."