Russell believes Mercedes take "One step forward and two steps back"

George Russell finished P9 in his first outing in the W13 in qualifying, behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton and the man he replaced at Mercedes as Valterri Bottas finished in P7.

Warm-up remains a struggle

"Q2 I was pretty happy, to be honest. I was happy with the warm-up" The Brit reveals but admits that "We tried something different on one set of tyres, and I really pushed on my out lap and at turn 1 I just had no grip."

Russell remains optimistic in reflection, "P9 is much lower down from where the car is but we are doing everything we can to get the car to the front" the 24-year-old adds, reflecting that the sentiment is felt throughout the team "wE know we want to be fighting for victories and we will do everything we can to do that."