George Russell finished qualifying in Sepang down in eighth — seventh on the actual grid once Isack Hadjar’s penalty kicked in — and didn’t pretend to have an explanation. “We don’t know, in all honesty,” the Briton admitted. “It’s the most demanding circuit on the tyres, so we don’t know exactly why we didn’t have the pace.”

It wasn’t a one-session problem either: “I think from Friday it was clear we weren’t on the pace of the Red Bulls, and then throughout the course of this weekend we just haven’t really progressed,” he added — a confession that stings a little more given the sizeable upgrade package Mercedes brought to Malaysia specifically to close that gap.

While Max Verstappen took pole and Russell’s teammate Kimi Antonelli starts third, still leading the championship by 66 points, Russell is choosing to look forward rather than back. “I think tomorrow the race is going to be a totally different story. Very high tyre degradation, all three tyre compounds look viable, so I think there will be some opportunities,” he said, before landing on cautious optimism: “I think we can fight for the podium. I think I can move forward, but I really don’t know. It was a strange one out there today.”

Source: Formula1.com (https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/russell-left-perplexed-by-qualifying-pace-in-sepang-as-he-predicts-different-story-in-race.6OYk57ODHLYCww7qSX8UAZ)