Russell reveals bizarre Mercedes damage from qualifying error

George Russell has revealed he broke his headrest during the error that brought a premature end to São Paulo Grand Prix qualifying.

The Mercedes driver dipped a wheel onto the white line when entering turn four on his second lap of Q3 as rain began to fall, causing him to take a trip across the gravel before failing in his attempt to correct his direction of travel and becoming beached.

The resultant red flag allowed the rain to fall sufficiently to prevent any further attempt at flying laps from the top 10, leaving Russell third on the grid for Saturday's sprint, behind shock pole winner Kevin Magnussen and Max Verstappen.

"Mixed emotions because we were one of the last cars to go out in qualifying and it was such a unique experience because as the lap progressed, the rain just fell harder and harder," said Russell.

"We got to the last corner and it was a lot wetter than it was on the lap before, so you had to be really tentative.

"Massive congrats to Kevin and Haas.

"This is what Formula 1 and sport is about, to have some crazy results like this but for us, P3 is a good place to start for the sprint."

Revealing the damage caused by his trip across the gravel when asked what was going through his mind at the time, Russell replied: "What was going through my mind was I was getting a really bad headache.

"My head... I have broken my headrest because my head was banging so much, it was a pretty unpleasant experience.

"I lost the rear and then I booted it and wanted to do a 360 and put the rears in the gravel.

"So probably not the wisest choice I ever made but as it turned out, the first lap was it all."

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