During the main qualifying session in Shanghai, Mercedes discovered a broken front wing in Q2 and George Russell’s car then stalled in Q3. The car failed to restart and remained stuck in first gear while mechanics worked; reports vary on the exact location of the stoppage (Turn 2 or Turn 5). Russell radioed “It’s not fine” as the team replaced the wing, swapped the steering wheel, ran default settings and power-cycled the car multiple times before the gearbox finally dropped into neutral and the car could rejoin with only minutes to spare.

Russell completed a final flying lap while running with no battery, cold tires and intermittent gearshift problems, and later said he could easily have ended up as low as P10. Mercedes has described the fault as electrical and said it remains under investigation. Team principal Toto Wolff likened the repeated reboots to “switching an iPhone on and off.”

Despite the reliability scare and frantic garage work, Russell recovered to secure P2 on the grid, giving Mercedes a front-row lockout alongside teammate Kimi Antonelli, who took pole and became the youngest-ever polesitter in F1. Mercedes has continued technical checks and is treating the stoppage as a reliability problem it must resolve before the race.

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4:53 – 5:43Russell qualifying issue and race start incidents@AidanMillward