George Russell closer than ever to giving up on 2026 F1 title

Russell is now 81 points adrift of team-mate Antonelli and is aware nothing short of a miracle can save his title bid

George Russell is now “exceptionally unlikely” to win the 2026 Formula 1 title, having been beaten by Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli for a fifth consecutive time at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Russell qualified a lowly sixth at F1’s new Madring track, explaining he “tried pushing hard in Turn 11” but “the tyres couldn’t take it”.

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Formula 1George Russell explains how he ended up a lowly sixth in Madring F1 qualifying

He and Oscar Piastri made contact at the start of the race, with the Briton seemingly unscathed, but he came off worse with the early virtual safety car as he switched from hard tyres to mediums, while most of his rivals got to move from softs or mediums to hards at an ideal time.

“Just very frustrating timing with the safety car,” Russell said. “We were hoping to make it to lap 40, we knew Kimi and the drivers on the medium and the soft would pit around lap 15, and the safety car came at lap 14, so…”

Only two of the 12 drivers who started on hards did pit under VSC, Russell and Fernando Alonso; the former ended up pitting again to switch back to his preferred hard compound.

Charles Leclerc, who was right ahead of the Mercedes in the early part of the race, stayed out and pitted on lap 48. He still came under pressure from the Mercedes late on, despite the Silver Arrow’s extra pitstop and the new soft tyres on the Ferrari. Leclerc narrowly salvaged fourth, with Russell fifth.

“The hard was by far my most superior tyre,” the Briton explained. “It would have been a big gamble to have stayed out on the medium. I thought I had nothing to lose. In the end, I think I would have ended up where I ended up anyway. So, a bit of a shame. Very tough track to overtake, which was a bit annoying, I guess, for everyone.”

George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

However, Russell insisted that “the performance was far better than the result” in Madrid. “But this was kind of Monaco-esque, in terms of qualifying being everything,” he added.

Meanwhile, Antonelli took his eighth victory of the season and his 12th podium finish in 14 grands prix. The Italian sophomore’s championship lead over Russell has ballooned from 25 to 81 points over the latest five rounds.

Russell is painfully aware that the youngster’s consistency is leaving him with little leeway to meaningfully reduce the gap in the title race, with – theoretically – nine rounds remaining.

“I'm not going to say it's over, but it's exceptionally unlikely that I'm in this fight,” the 28-year-old admitted. “I'm not even thinking about being in the fight because I don't think I am in the fight. It almost just allows me to focus race by race and just try and win as many as possible. What will be, will be, but… Yeah, that's where we are right now.”