George Russell warns of qualifying "issue" as traffic threatens early exits

After watching FP1 undercover in a lucha libre mask, the Mercedes driver returned for FP2 and cautioned that the short, twisty layout will make clean laps critical in qualifying

George Russell has warned that traffic will pose an issue during qualifying at the Mexico Grand Prix. He explains that the short and twisty track of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez will leave drivers vulnerable to an early exit if their timing isn't perfect.

FP1 saw the Mercedes driver watch from the grandstands as he slipped between fans disguised in a lucha libre mask.

"One thing when you're an F1 driver, is you can't watch F1," he said. "It's rare you get the chance to go out, and I thought, you know what, I'll try and do something semi-normal, and I didn't get recognised too much, and enjoyed it.”

Back in the car for FP2, Russell placed sixth on the timesheet, four tenths off pacesetter Max Verstappen. His rookie team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli also impressed, finishing third.

“It's close out there. It's obviously a short track," Russell continued. "It's like a minute, a 1m17s, a 1m16s. It's going to be the lap time, so margins are always tight. Single lap, I think we look OK.

"Lando looked very quick on his long run, which has obviously been themed, but as we know, qualifying is so important, so it all lies on that for tomorrow, and see what we can do, but it'll be close between the top eight cars."

George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

The Briton expects traffic and mixed run plans to create a stressful qualifying session on Saturday ahead of the race, especially in the stadium-style final section of the track.

“Yeah, I mean, this is, I don't know if it's the second... I think it's the second shortest track of the season, this one. Third, right, so third shortest track of the season, and especially with this last sector, it's so slow speed, tight, twisty, so traffic in Q1, Q2 is going to be an issue, same for everybody.

"You can't take too much margin because the gaps are so close, and obviously in Q1, the backfield cars are often going two or three sets of new tyres, and if you want to get to Q3 with two sets, you can't be throwing tyres at it, so it's never straightforward.”