George Russell says he is back in his groove and is starting to trust his instincts again after returning to form in spectacular fashion on the first two days of the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix weekend.
The Mercedes driver claimed pole position from Lewis Hamilton on Saturday with a time that was four tenths quicker than team-mate and early Drivers' Championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
Pre-season title favourite Russell failed to score any points across the last two weekends in Canada and Monaco, falling to third in the standings, 68 points adrift of Antonelli.
However, he topped the timesheets in two of the three sessions this weekend and was barely a hundredth of a second behind Lando Norris in the other before storming to pole on Saturday afternoon.
"I had a big reset going into this weekend and every lap from the start of FP1 we have been in the top two positions," Russell told Your Site F1.
"That's what I was most proud and happy about after such a tough run of results for various reasons.
"So a big reset. You never know how it's going to pan out but I really felt in my groove again, really felt comfortable in the car - similar to how I felt at the start of the year.
"Then to get the results, I'm really grateful to the team and everyone who stood by me in these couple of weeks."
After winning the season opener in Australia, Russell has seen his 19-year-old team-mate win five races in a row and he is determined to snap that streak on Sunday.
Russell admits he has tried to copy Antonelli's set-up in recent weeks, but has now reverted to driving on instinct and, remarkably, has not asked for any analytics from the team in Barcelona.
"I've not looked at a single piece of data the whole weekend. I've just driven the car and trusted my instincts," he added.
"That was a bit of a risk because these cars are so complicated. You are always trying to find that next step of improvement. That's what I've been doing with my team for the last few races.
"Kimi was performing so well and I've done a bit of a copy and paste for what was working for him and it wasn't working for me.
"I was like 'I need to trust my own gut here' and something was telling me I needed to go in my own direction.
"I'm super glad I have."
In contrast, Antonelli's more aggressive driving style has not paid dividends in the heat of Barcelona so far this weekend.
Tyre management is more critical at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya than at any of the previous races on this year's calendar and Antonelli feels he has been "over-driving" his Mercedes.
"I haven't felt good in the car," he told Your Site F1.
"I haven't been able to adapt the driving style to the conditions we have this weekend. Obviously it's a track that doesn't forgive, especially because the tyres struggle to last over one lap.
"I haven't been able to extract the maximum time out of the tyres over the whole lap. I had a really strong lap up until turn five and then I just lost lots of time from there on.
"I think I've been over-driving a little bit. This is a weekend where you kind of need to drive slow to go fast, and I haven't done that well."
On top of managing tyre degradation, the start of Sunday's race is likely to prove crucial for both drivers, who will be separated by Ferrari's Hamilton ahead of the long run to the first corner.
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff wants his drivers to emerge cleanly from that crucial first lap and will speak to both about maximising their points haul.
"They're both starting on the on the on the clean side of the track," he told Your Site F1. "That means we are going to see a slipstream
"It's about conditioning them in the right way on Sunday morning, making sure that we are collecting the points.
"Then it's going to be a tough race."
Sunday June 14
7.35am: F3 Feature Race
9.05am: Porsche Supercup
10.20am: F2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Barcelona-Catalunya GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
2pm: THE BARCELONA-CATALUNYA GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Barcelona-Catalunya GP reaction: Chequered Flag
5pm: Ted's Notebook
*Also on Your Site Main Event
Formula 1 is in Spain for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix with live coverage on Your Site F1. Sunday's race starts at 2pm.
