George Russell admitted some “wrong decisions” were made over recent races on his side of the Mercedes garage, as he surged back to pole position on Saturday.

Russell pipped Lewis Hamilton to pole position in Barcelona, with teammate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli set to line up third for Sunday’s race.

George Russell admits recent errors after returning to pole

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The Briton has seen a 68-point gap open up to Antonelli in the Drivers’ standings through a combination of a non-finish in Canada, falling outside the points in Monaco after a 20-second penalty and Russell’s admission that he did not drive at his best in Miami.

Having been at or around the top of the timesheets throughout in Barcelona this weekend, he delivered a third pole position of the season come the end of qualifying.

Acknowledging he had moved towards Antonelli’s setup direction by ‘copy-pasting’ in recent races to try and close the gap to him, Russell said he went back to his own path to suit his driving style, which paid dividends with a pole position.

Having discussed with his engineering team about where he could improve, his “back to basics” approach has seemingly worked at this stage.

“I’ve got to be honest, just really happy to be back in my groove over the course of the whole weekend,” Russell told PlanetF1.com and others after the session.

“It’s been a difficult few races for me, obviously bad luck, been some poor performances in there, but went back to an approach that I knew works for me this weekend, and more important than the pole position for me was just in every lap of the whole weekend,  I was in the top two positions and I felt confident, I felt good, just felt like my old self again – regardless of what happened in Q3.

“Lewis did a really amazing job, and also could have got the pole position as well, but regardless, that was the most important thing for me this weekend.”

Asked about what he has changed to get back to this point, Russell added: “Car setup, mentality, just going back to basics, really.

“These cars are so complicated, the tyres are complicated, the power units are complicated, and it’s challenging to get on top of things – especially when I’ve got a guy like this next to me [Antonelli] who’s been performing so well.

“You’re trying to constantly improve, and I think that doing some copy-pasting probably really put me on the back foot.

“This weekend I’ve just gone in my own direction, and that’s what I’ve done and done in the past for the last few years, and really glad to see it paying off.

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“Miami was just the first weekend where everything felt pretty challenging, and that’s where I think I can accept, and with my direct group of engineers, we can accept we probably made some wrong decisions in these last three races.

“More than anything, more than this pole position, I’m just glad to feel myself again, feel at one with the car again, as I have done for the last few years.”

Russell will have to navigate a 560-metre run to the first corner at the start on Sunday, with both Hamilton and Antonelli set to challenge for the lead at the beginning of the Barcelona-Catalunya GP.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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