Russell "not satisfied" with P5 in Jeddah after "very bad day" for Mercedes

Mercedes driver George Russell said the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was a "very bad day" for him and his team as he was "not satisfied" with his P5 finish.

The Brit has made a super start to the 2025 Formula 1 season, taking three podiums in four races before the lights went out in Jeddah for the fifth race of the season.

However, the 27-year-old could not back up his P2 that he took at the Bahrain Grand Prix last time out, with tyre overheating causing him to lose a lot of pace in the secnd phase of the Grand Prix, meaning both Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris were able to easily get by after the Mercedes driver started in P3.

Right at the end of the race, the tyre degradation was so bad for Russell that he worried he was not going to make it to the chequered flag. However, he tiptoed around the final laps to cross the line and take P5

Russell expected more in Jeddah

"I think when you saw how much we dropped off at the end," the Brit started by saying in the paddock in Jeddah to several media sources, including GPblog.

"It was just massive tyre overheating. We managed to hold on quite well at the beginning, and then I was pushing quite hard to stay with Max [Verstappen], but then I just fell off the cliff. We knew that was a possibility.

"It was obviously a disappointing race, but ultimately, had I managed it better, I think the result would have been the same. We need to understand why it was so bad today and why, relatively speaking, it was much better in Bahrain," Russell continued.

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It was quite a turnaround in form from the German team after Russell's impressive P2 in the desert of Sakhir, and as a result, the mood in the garage was not too positive.

"We are definitely not satisfied with P5," explained Russell. "We’ve had a very good run so far. Today was a very bad day as a team, but there is definitely some understanding to take from that, because we probably didn’t expect to be so competitive in Bahrain, and we probably expected to be more competitive today. So, there is pace in the car, but today was all about tyres, and we didn’t get it right.

"As a team, we're on double the points compared to last year, and myself, probably more than double," the 27-year-old said, commenting on the fine start he and his team have made to 2025 as a whole.

"I don’t think we could have achieved a better result at any of the races we’ve been to. Today was a bad day, and we came home in P5, and that is a positive. But we’re, of course, not content with that. We do want to be fighting for wins, but right now, we don’t have the pace to do so. In those moments, when you don’t have the pace, you just need to pick up the points, and that is a positive. But we need to find some performance and find it quickly," Russell concluded.