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George Russell faced a tough time during the first qualifying session of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after his Mercedes couldn't make it to Q3.
Mercedes, who have had questionable pace since the very start of the season, seem to be struggling in Azerbaijan. After being on the front grid spot in Australia, George Russell qualified only P11 in Baku, getting disqualified for Q3.
This is also the first time that his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, was able to out-qualify him this season. However, he, too, was right on the margin of being disqualified.
Many on social media called out the "loser's club," something that Pierre Gasly earlier mentioned that consists of himself, George Russell, Esteban Ocon, and Charles Leclerc. While things seem to be better for the Ferrari driver as he finished P1, the other three couldn't even make it to Q3.
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"Pierre George and Esteban. Losers club has struck again"
George Russell could witness better race pace at Baku
Mercedes have been struggling with straight-line speed since the past season, and even during the free practice session earlier on Friday, they had the slowest pace on straights.
To make up for it, the team has apparently been running a high-downforce setup to have better cornering speed. While this is expected to help them with the race pace, it hasn't gone too well in terms of their qualifying session.
While George Russell will be starting P11, Hamilton had another chance of getting his car out since he made it to Q3, however, the pace of the W14 is still not satisfactory as he qualified only P5. While he outperformed both the Aston Martins, Ferrari's pace has been impressive, replacing the former in front of Mercedes.
The team is speculating on bringing in a new design concept for the W14 to challenge their rivals. Russell revealed earlier that he is hoping to battle for victories later in the season with the new spec car.
However, there is still some time for that to happen, and it also coincides with Ferrari's plans to bring upgrades around the same time. This could either bring in more competition for them, or they could perhaps perform much better.
