Russell reveals Mercedes' weakness after tough race in Jeddah

Having come tantalizingly close to pole position on Saturday, Mercedes driver George Russell failed to secure another podium finish, and he has revealed that tyre overheating is one of his car's weaknesses.

George Russell started from third on the grid after his brilliant last push lap in qualifying. While he looked comfortable on the medium tyres during the opening stint, he soon after started to suffer from higher levels of degradation.

The Briton elected to pit early, and while Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris rejoined the track behind Russell after their own pit stop, the Mercedes man lost out to both the Ferrari and McLaren driver to finish fifth in Jeddah.

His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli started from P5 on the grid, and looked strong in the early stages of the race. However, his pace faded as the race progressed, and he even clipped the wall at one point.

Although Ferrari’s seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton looked much stronger during the second stint, the Bologna-born managed to extract enough from his W16 to dissuade the Briton from chasing too hard behind.

Commenting on his race in Jeddah, Russell stated that his pace was restricted by the overheating of his tyres.

"[Sunday ]was all about the tyres and unfortunately, ours were suffering from overheating. I was pushing to stay with Verstappen at the start of the second stint, but it quickly became clear that we weren’t going to be able to hang on.

"I tried to manage the tyres a little more but, with the tyre age offset they had built, Leclerc and Norris were able to move ahead. After that, my tyres dropped off the cliff and it was all about just bringing the car home in P5.

Reflecting on his W16's race pace, Russell stated: "Ultimately, we didn’t have the pace today. Even if we had managed more at different points, that was the maximum available to us this evening.

"We will take the positives we can from this weekend. We know that tyre overheating is a weakness of our car at the moment. Everyone is focused on improving that. We will have to accept coming home fifth on a bad day but we all want to make steps in that area, and quickly."