George Russell will aim to put the pressure on Lando Norris at the F1 Dutch GP on Sunday after qualifying in second behind the McLaren driver.
Having led the earlier Sprint race from start to finish, Russell headed into Saturday’s qualifying session with already one dominant win under his belt. However, despite both Russell and his teammate Kimi Antonelli displaying impressive speed, the British driver was ultimately pipped to the line by Norris by just one tenth of a second.
Russell: Mercedes faster than McLaren in Zandvoort
Despite his narrow defeat to Norris, Russell was satisfied with his team’s performance. With Antonelli starting on the second row in P3, the British driver hopes they’ll be able to weigh in on Norris during Sunday’s race.
“I think we’re in a great place, to be honest,” he said. “Obviously, we’ve got Kimi and I in P2 and P3. So it gives us a bit of an opportunity to put Lando under a bit of pressure strategically.”
Russell went on to observe that Mercedes’ car, compared with that of McLaren, seems better suited to a track like Zandvoort where tyre management is key over longer stints due to high levels of degradation.
“I think we probably had a slightly faster race car than those guys. I think, as Lando said, they [McLaren] look very strong in the high-speed corners. And on a track like this, with high tyre degradation, you can’t really utilise that performance as much in the race because it just puts too much stress on the tyres. So I think it will come towards us.”
The Mercedes driver also admitted that the team had been anticipating more of a battle with Ferrari, but drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc ended up being slower than expected, qualifying in P5 and P6 respectively.
“Ferrari, a little bit further down the order than we would have expected,” said Russell. “I think they would have been the biggest threat. So, yeah, it’s game on.”
READ MORE – F1 2026 Dutch Grand Prix – Qualifying Results
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