Mercedes suffer ‘slowest Friday’ in Monaco but George Russell optimistic two-stop race offers ‘a chance’

“To be honest in terms of pure performance, it’s probably been our slowest Friday,” he said.

“But to be honest, we had a bad Friday here last year and we were only, I think, a tenth from pole in the end. So kind of all still to play for and I’m still pretty excited to see how Sunday is going to pan out.

“Even if we’re not in the top five, or top three, tomorrow I still think there may be a bit of a chance on Sunday, especially the first time being as it is this year [with the two-stop rule]. We’ll keep our hopes alive.”

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Russell admitted that teams using up hard sets of tyres “was a bit of a surprise to us” and that different strategies will be at play come the race.

He added: “It’s always amazing driving around here, we weren’t very quick today but tomorrow usually is the main day. But, this weekend, with the mandated two-stop, it will be interesting.”