Strategy ruined
In the qualifying for the Italian GP, in Monza, yet another chapter of the tense stories between George Russell and Max Verstappen took place. This time the conflict between the two, both on and off the track, was less conspicuous than on other occasions in the more or less recent past, but this does not erase the obvious nervousness, especially of the Englishman, towards his colleague. As Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff noted, Verstappen is the reason why Russell missed pole position by just six hundredths in favor of Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.
Read more Antonelli, everyone cheers for you: even Bezzecchi and Aprilia in Monza push Kimi’s comeback
But what happened on track? Verstappen, just before approaching the Parabolica, realized he had no slipstream ahead of him and visibly slowed his pace, hoping that Andrea Kimi Antonelli behind him would overtake and act as a ‘tow’. However, Antonelli was at that moment in the role of ‘wingman’ and was trying to launch his teammate Russell, who was behind him. Antonelli, understanding the situation, chose not to overtake Verstappen to avoid giving him an advantage, but in this way the prearranged distances between him and Russell to create a perfect slipstream game were disrupted.
Read more 6 Hours of COTA 2026, Qualifying: Giovinazzi takes Ferrari #51 to pole position
Russell’s analysis
Speaking with journalists present in Monza, Russell clearly pointed to Verstappen as the ‘responsible’ for this confusion: “Everything seemed fine – explained the British driver – but then, entering the Parabolica, Max slammed on the brakes. He didn’t want to be the lead car. These things happen. You can’t control what others do. Kimi was there to give me the slipstream – which he did perfectly on the first attempt – but obviously with Max ahead I think it was also difficult for Kimi to understand what to do – commented Russell – so there was a bit of bad luck. In hindsight, we probably would have done better not to try, but we wanted to do our best and, despite everything, second place is a good result. We are ahead of our rivals and still have great chances to fight for the win“. Hoping to avoid other ‘close encounters’ with Max.
Read more Gasly the only perfect one in the chaos of Monza, Ferrari in the game thanks to the ADUO-2
