McLaren have" pace on everybody else," claims Russell after coming agonisingly close to Jeddah pole

Despite his brilliant qualifying effort on Saturday night, Mercedes driver George Russell does not expect himself to be in contention for the victory in Jeddah, claiming that McLaren are out of reach.

It was not obvious how competitive Mercedes is at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit as the W16 looked strong in certain conditions, but it appeared to lack pace in others. However, qualifying night at Jeddah turned out to be a strong session for the Brackley-based outfit after George Russell came agonisingly close in battle for Jeddah pole

Ultimately, the Briton wound up just a tenth off pole, firmly in the fight with the Red Bull and McLaren ahead. His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who has experience of the Jeddah circuit from last year when he drove in F2, once again showed how quickly he is progressing as he ended up fifth on the grid.

Asked about his final qualifying lap, Russell said: "I'm not too sure, to be honest. I've got mixed feelings because I felt there was a bit more on the table. There's a lot of pressure going into that last lap because Oscar had a lap on the board. I think the run plan that Max did with the two laps was a really good one and one we didn’t really consider.

"Just having that lap on the board sort of takes the pressure off. When you go into Turn 1, you've got to really send it and you're braking at 75 metres. When you've got no lap on the board, it's like, "I've got no bailout here if I make the smallest of mistakes." So, look, P3 is much better than I thought and to be so close to Oscar. Congrats to Max. He did a great job. It's going be interesting tomorrow.

Asked whether Mercedes considered to complete two laps in the final qualifying segment after the red flag, Russell said that he is sure that his team discussed about it.

"It was, to be honest. It was discussed more to actually start on the new and put the used on after. I'm sure it was discussed on the pit wall. I'm not privy to every single conversation because I’m just driving the car at that point, and I put my trust in the team. But it's something we'll discuss afterwards.

"As a driver, just knowing you've only got that one lap... Especially on a track like this, you've got to be full commitment. Turn 1... you're pushing the tyres to be as cold as possible, and I didn’t have the confidence to push them any cooler.

"I lost a bit of lap time with my tires being a bit too hot, because I was just being a little bit too conservative with them. P3 is a great place to start. I think the deg on the Medium is going be pretty high, so I hope there will be more opportunities than Japan.

Pushed on to reveal what he expects from the race, Russell said: "I think it depends on Turn 1, to be honest. Max and I were just talking now. We both recognise McLaren are the standout favourites and definitely have the pace on everybody else. If Oscar gets into the lead, you'll probably see a repeat of Bahrain.

"If we stay in the order we qualified, I think it could be a tight race until the pit stops. The Medium tyre this year was last year's soft, which only one driver used in the whole race. We saw the tyres were too hard in Japan.

"We've all pushed to have softer tyres. Hopefully, it won't make it a slam-dunk one-stop, and there could be a couple of different strategies on the table."