George Russell has referred to Fernando Alonso as a ‘dark horse’ by suggesting the Spaniard will pose a larger threat than Ferrari to Mercedes’ hopes of a podium in tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
A close qualifying hour witnessed the Mercedes drivers wound up sixth and seventh overall, with Russell marginally beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Despite promising signs earlier in the session, the British pair eventually ended up behind the two Ferraris and Alonso’s Aston Martin in the order.
While Ferrari had the edge on Saturday to lock out the second row, the Italian side appeared to be struggling with tyre degradation issues in the long runs throughout practice.
Having already suspected the front-row starting Red Bull duo will be in a “different league” to the rest on race day, Russell has now tipped the Aston Martin in the hands of Alonso to emerge as its main challenger in its pursuit of a podium place.
“Their race pace is always a little bit worse than their quali pace and for us it’s a bit the opposite,” Russell positively assessed.
“So qualifying three-tenths behind them when they’ve probably been the fastest car in a single lap, I think we’re in a good place – to be honest, Fernando’s probably more of a dark horse than Ferrari.”
After Alonso set the fastest time in two of the three practice sessions many were anticipating that the two-time champion would be in the hunt for pole position.
However, when push came to shove in the final part of qualifying Aston Martin came up short over a single lap, with Alonso claiming fifth and Lance Stroll eighth.
Although Alonso was still able to qualify ahead of both of the Mercedes drivers, Russell has conceded he expected the Silverstone team to fare slightly better.
“I was expecting a little bit more from them, to be honest,” Russell stated. “I was a little bit surprised we were so close to them, with the pace they showed.
“So, yeah, I guess it was a good session for us. It’s interesting how they were so competitive in practice but ultimately when qualifying’s the first time you truly get a real read and going into this weekend this is roughly where we expected to be.”
Following an unsatisfactory Friday for Mercedes – which left Hamilton fearing the car was a “long way off” – the Brackley-based squad rebounded to be more competitive than widely anticipated on qualifying day.
Although Q2 suggested it could be a surprise inclusion in the battle for pole, the German marque’s threat fizzled out in the all-important Q3 session to leave the Mercedes pair 0.6s behind Max Verstappen.
Nevertheless, Russell maintains the W14 is in a better place to battle for a top-three slot after the improvements it made overnight surpassed the team’s expectations.
“After yesterday it’s a lot better than we expected,” the one-time Formula 1 race winner underlined. “We had a tough Friday, we expected to add a bit of performance overnight but the performance we added probably exceeded expectations.
“Ultimately the car’s feeling nice to drive, so I think we’re in a much better-starting place compared to [the] W13 and now we can focus on global performance rather than spending three-quarters of the year problem-solving.
“Yeah, we’re in a good place to fight for P3 tomorrow with Ferrari and Fernando, we put a bit more of an emphasis on setting the car for the race tomorrow, so all to play for,” he added.
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