Russell laments F1 rivals 'killing us' as Mercedes struggle in Monza

George Russell has said it's a 'shame' that the best Mercedes could hope for at the Italian Grand Prix was fifth and sixth.

On a historic afternoon at Monza where Max Verstappen broke the record for the most amount of consecutive race victories in Formula 1 with 10, Mercedes were left floundering well outside the top three.

It was Ferrari who took the fight to Red Bull for the race win and podium positions. Meanwhile Mercedes were fighting the Williams of Alex Albon and the two McLarens for their fifth and sixth place finishes, with Russell finishing ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

READ MORE: F1 2023 Italian Grand Prix results – Verstappen breaks ALL-TIME record

After the race, Russell gave the Sky Sports F1 crew an honest review of where the team are at.

“It was really challenging. The Red Bull was so fast, especially Checo on the last couple of corners, the high-speed," he said. "They were just killing us, and even against the Ferraris, I could see he was really quick there. P5 was definitely the maximum, which is a bit of a shame.

"I didn’t expect Ferrari to be a small step ahead of us as they were. Red Bull was a real surprise and equally McLaren further than we would’ve thought too. For whatever reason, quite a spread-out field. I’m sure it’ll be a different story in Singapore."

Mercedes back down to earth?

Spirits were high going into the weekend for Mercedes, following the announcement that both Hamilton and Russell would be staying with the team until at least the end of the 2025 season.

Those feelings would only have improved as they saw Russell put his car onto the second row of the grid in qualifying, in a position to challenge for a podium.

However, the lack of race pace was clear for Mercedes, and they did well to come out of the race with 18 points between the pair of them.

They will be hoping that their car will improve in the coming races, and that they have a chance to win at least win one race this season.

Russell believes that strategy is everything when you lack pace as Mercedes did on Sunday.

“I think we could’ve pitted two laps earlier and two laps later and we would have still finished P5. When you have a fast car, you can have a good strategy, bad strategy, you’ll still come out on top.

"Unfortunately, for us, on a race weekend like this, the strategy is always challenging. I think as a team we did a good job. P5 [and] P6 was definitely the maximum.

READ MORE: Hamilton set to BREAK Schumacher record with new Mercedes contract

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