Russell ready to trap the McLarens in Melbourne: "In the rain, anything can happen"

If Andrea Kimi Antonelli lived a nightmare this Saturday for his first qualifying session in F1, George Russell responded to the call in Melbourne and carried the colours of Mercedes in Q3. The Briton secured 4th place on the starting grid for the Australian GP, ​​behind Max Verstappen and the impressive ones McLarenThe three-time Grand Prix winner could hardly have hoped for better for this first qualifying of the season, given the Woking team's huge lead over the other Top Teams.

“I was very pleased with today’s qualifying. Every lap we did was competitive. We were always in the top four positions, I felt confident, and the team did a great job, George Russell testified after qualifyingWe made some big changes to the car [Friday] night. The gap to McLaren is big and Oscar and Lando had bad laps at the start of Q3, so the pressure was very high for them and on the last lap they did a good job. But I think we know, at the moment, that they are out of reach."

For Russell, McLaren can already look ahead to 2026

George Russell even admitted that McLaren could already concentrate on its 2026 car while winning the two world titles, given their significant lead over their rivals. "If you have a six-tenths advantage at the start of the season, no one will find six-tenths throughout the year. So McLaren is in a great position for today and for the future.", confided the fatalistic Briton. Nevertheless, if the McLarens are dominating in terms of pure pace, the Mercedes driver is not admitting defeat for this weekend and is counting on the rain to upset the established order.

"We've seen in recent races that anything can happen in the rain. In Brazil, everything was going well until there was a VSC and a red flag, and suddenly we went from leading the race to fifth place, and we didn't even make the podium., recalled George Russell, who finished 4th at Interlagos last year after leading the raceWe have to make sure we're not the losers, but I think the weather can only be a good thing for us when we're trying to get ahead of McLaren." Like Pierre Gasly before himGeorge Russell may try to do the rain dance to make his wish come true and give himself a chance of victory in Melbourne. The Mercedes looked very promising in terms of race pace: will that be confirmed on Sunday?

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