Russell eager for rain in bid to chase down McLaren

George Russell believes “anything can happen” if the forecast rain strikes the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday after the Mercedes man secured a slot on the second row of the grid.

Russell will start Sunday’s Albert Park race from fourth, behind pole-sitter Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and P3-starter Max Verstappen, while Racing Bulls' Yuki Tsunoda and Williams' Alex Albon occupy P5 and P6 respectively.

But while the weekend’s running in Melbourne has so far taken place in warm, dry conditions, rain is expected to fall throughout the race.

Suggesting that a wet weather intervention will be required to close the gap at the front – with Russell 0.405s behind Norris' pole time – the Mercedes driver said: “We’ve seen in recent races that in the rain, it’s anyone’s game and anything can happen.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 15: George Russell of Great Britain driving the (63) Mercedes AMG — Russell secured fourth on the grid in an exciting Qualifying session

“Brazil, everything was pretty smooth for us until a VSC and a red flag, and suddenly we went from leading the race to P5 and not even on the podium.

“We need to make sure we’re not the ones to lose out, but I think the weather can only be a good thing for us when we’re trying to get ahead of McLaren.”

The earlier practice sessions on Friday had seen Mercedes struggle for pace on the soft tyre while being competitive on both the medium and hard compounds. And although team mate Kimi Antonelli dropped out in the opening phase of Qualifying – this blamed on bib damage that caused a loss in performance – Russell was impressed by the gains found by the team overnight.

“I was really pleased with today’s running,” he added. “Every lap we did was competitive. We were always in the top four positions really, I felt confident, and the team did a great job. We made some big changes to the car last night.

“The gap to McLaren is large and fair play to Oscar and Lando because they both had bad laps at the beginning of Q3, so the pressure was very high for them and on the last lap, they did a great job. But I think we know, at the moment, that they’re out of reach.”