Russell expects to fight Red Bull and Ferrari in Jeddah: 'Back to normal'

After a sound P2 finish where he managed to hold off Lando Norris until the flag dropped in Bahrain, George Russell now looks to Ferrari and Red Bull in Jeddah.

"I think Bahrain was a really positive weekend for us because the first three races were all relatively similar with a bit more high speed, very smooth tarmac, very cold races," Russell said to GPblog and other media present at Jeddah during media day.

Whereas Oscar Piastri drove his MCL39 into the night to take the flag after 57 laps, Russell was able to keep Lando Norris' McLaren behind in the fierce fight for P2. A feat indeed. "Bahrain was the outlier and we all knew that McLaren was going to take a huge step forward and they clearly showed how competitive they were, Oscar just drove away into the distance. So for me and for us to be ahead of any McLaren was a huge result."

Russell looks to Ferrari and Red Bull

An outlier track, an outlier result for Mercedes, thinks Russell, who still thinks the German's fight is elsewhere. " But I still think it's very close between ourselves Ferrari and Red Bull. You saw Ferrari's middle stint was exceptionally fast and probably if they avoided the hard tyre at the last stint it would have been close with myself and Charles (Leclerc, ed.)"

"Red Bull obviously had an off weekend but I think they'll be back to normal this weekend. I think it's anybody's game for P2."

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