Back then the Brackley team was still largely a midfield runner, and while Nico Rosberg had won the Chinese GP early in the year, he and teammate Michael Schumacher scored only two podiums over the rest of the season. Thus, missing Q3 was actually no big deal at the time.
However, in the hybrid era it was unprecedented, and thus 11th place for George Russell and 13th for Lewis Hamilton came as a shock to everyone in the team.
