Monaco Grand Prix: Kimi Antonelli pips Max Verstappen to pole with Lewis Hamilton third

Russell struggled to gain grip throughout the session and did not look likely to challenge for pole position, finishing 0.394 seconds behind his teammate.

He admitted that he was confused as to why he had lost performance in recent races.

“Everything was easier at the beginning of the year,” Russell said. “Every lap I did in practice, in qualifying, I was either 1st or worse, 2nd; every session, Q1, Q2, Q3.

“Nothing happened in the last three races and even in Canada there was a real struggle to get a good lap and I managed to do that at the end of both sessions.

“It was pulling something special out of a hat and a bit of luck to do it at the right time, but that’s where I’m at right now.”

Norris had been fourth fastest in the opening runs of the final session, but a mistake at the port chicane on his final run brought him down.

The world champion said: “I just locked into 10. I don’t know why. When I looked at the data, I had a little more brake pressure but the line and the bump were the same.”

“I was at 99.9% and sometimes it’s hard to know and I went to 100% and paid the price for it.

“I was pushing too hard. I feel like we’ve got so many lap times and there’s not much to come after that, and it’s frustrating to see the others putting in better and better laps, the gap getting bigger and you wanting to go with them.”

“But there was no car all weekend, we were struggling, that’s clear.”

“It’s a tough weekend. I tried to do a better lap and I was almost 0.2 seconds ahead, so there was more potential, but even if I was 0.2 seconds ahead I would only be ahead of Oscar. So the gap to the others was very significant.”