Russell 'infuriated' by straight-line issue that leaves him 'powerless'

Russell 'infuriated' by straight-line issue that leaves him 'powerless'Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, George Russell will start the Belgian Grand Prix from third place because of a 10-place grid penalty for McLaren's Lando NorrisByAndrew BensonF1 Correspondent at Spa-FrancorchampsPublished9 minutes ago2 CommentsGeorge Russell says a "serious issue" with the straight-line performance of his Mercedes is making his title fight with team-mate Kimi Antonelli "impossible".Russell qualified fourth for the Belgian Grand Prix, and was 0.508 seconds slower than the 19-year-old Italian, who took his sixth pole position in 10 races.The Briton said that the majority of his deficit to Antonelli could be explained by a mystery lack of speed on the straights."When I cross the line, you see you're half a second down, it feels pretty rubbish," Russell said. "But when you realise more than 75% of that's coming from the power-unit, you feel a bit better."I was pleased with my lap. When I look at the corners, there's a lot of corners I was faster. There's definitely corners I needed to improve. But the corners look like a normal fight you'd have for a pole. The straights is not."Russell has been struggling for pace in comparison with Antonelli all weekend at the classic Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.He ended Friday practice more than a second adrift, and had been told by his team that the deficit was explained by the way he was driving the corners.Image source, ReutersImage caption, George Russell says he loses "anywhere from 0.2-0.6secs in the straights"The team recognised that the issue was that Russell was less comfortable with the car in the medium and high-speed corners of the middle sector. That meant he was making corrections to the steering that Antonelli did not have to do. These cost speed, which needed to be filled in with battery power. As electrical ener...