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George Russell said Ferrari’s pace in Monaco on Friday proved it “wasn’t just chat” when he tipped them as pre-race favourites.
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The two SF-26s claimed the top spots in both practice sessions on Friday in Monaco. Lewis Hamilton set the quickest time in the second session with a lap of 1’13.026 which put him 0.379 seconds ahead of Russell.
“We expected Ferrari to be the guys to beat,” said the Mercedes driver. “A lot of people thought that was just chat, but clearly they are the team to beat.”
Russell ended Friday fourth on the times sheets behind the Ferrari pair and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. “Red Bull have also been a bit of a surprise for us,” Russell added.
“We knew out of the races so far, this was going to be our most challenging. It’s probably been slightly more challenging than we would have hoped.
“But we did make some good improvements from FP1 into FP2. We need to make the same step again overnight and I don’t think we nailed it today. So there is room to improve, but definitely Ferrari are the team [to beat].”
Ferrari won the Monaco Grand Prix in 2024 and Charles Leclerc finished second to McLaren’s Lando Norris last year. Russell believes their design philosophy makes their car particularly well suited to the unusually slow track and its steeply cambered corners.
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“The trends that we see with Ferrari every year here and on street tracks and what we’ve seen today have been there for probably 10 years, to be honest,” he said. “I think every car has an inherent DNA.
“Their inherent DNA, especially on the mechanical side of the car, clearly works on these street tracks. Especially when there’s a lot of warp in the corners and the corner’s dropping away.
“We’re doing everything we can to try and make those improvements, I do think we can close the gap. [Whether] we can overcome it, I’m not sure.”
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