Why Russell says Madrid leaves less margin for error than Monaco

George Russell says Madrid could pose a greater challenge than Monaco with teams having limited margin for mistakes as the sport races at the new circuit for the first time.

The Mercedes driver set the benchmark in first practice at the Madring built around an exhibition center near the Spanish capital’s airport.

“In Monaco, the walls are closer, but because you're going far slower, if you make a mistake, you're not into the wall as quickly, and you can recover it sometimes, a small lock-up.”

“There's a lot of really fast corners, but the barrier is kind of like coming back onto the track. So, if you are to go wide and hit the wall, you're not hitting it kind of at the same angle as the car is going. The wall is sort of coming in at you.”

According to Russell, there is also a section of high-speed swerves, similar to the fast Jeddah street track in Saudi Arabia. In the first part of Friday’s opening session, Ferrari set the pace on the medium tyres but fell behind the pace of Mercedes on the elastomeric compound.