George Russell was left concerned after Mercedes had “absolutely zero pace” during the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Russell qualified P3 but sunk behind both Ferraris and Alex Albon on his way to finishing seventh.

George Russell laments lack of Mercedes pack in Imola

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Russell has enjoyed an excellent start to the season, finishing no lower than fifth before this weekend’s race, but could only manage P7 as quicker cars passed him late in the race.

Speaking in the immediate aftermath, the Mercedes driver pointed to a trend of the car during certain conditions.

“On the lap to the grid, I was reporting some problems in the car, and I thought something was wrong,” he told media including PlanetF1.com.

“The team had a good look around, and saw nothing. That feeling continued for 60-odd laps so we had absolutely zero pace.

“It’s clearly a trend. When it’s hot, we’re slow. When it’s cold, we’re quick. That was a trend last year. The same trend this year. So we need to try and solve that.”

Russell went on to describe it as a “disastrous weekend” but commented that every team has one at some point in the year.

“Every team has a disastrous race weekend at some point, this is our first one of the season,” Russell, who is fourth in the Drivers’ standings, said.

“Red Bull had a disastrous one in Bahrain. This is our first one of the year. So of course, we’re not very happy, but you know your car isn’t going to be in podium position week in, week out. That’s what we’ve been doing recently.

“There’s no excuses, it’s just a reality of F1. You have all these different tracks, different types of compounds, different temperatures, but it was definitely very underwhelming.”

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It was the rear of the car that seemed to trouble Russell most and he said the team often has either the front or the rear wheels overheating.

“It was just like I felt my rear wheels were moving so we’ll review it,” he said.

“There was nothing obvious standing out, but just even a straight line, the car was moving around.

“But rear tyre [temperatures] were through the roof. So we do have a bit of a fundamental [problem]. It’s either fronts are overheating or the rears are overheating.

“But it’s not the first time we’ve reported that, so it was probably just the first time where all of our rivals probably had a semi-decent pace.”

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