George Russell confident in 'base he can build upon'

George Russell took a step forward in qualifying in Bahrain, as he manages to put his Mercedes on P3 for tomorrow's Grand Prix. He sits behind Max Verstappen on pole and Charles Leclerc in second while his teammate Lewis Hamilton could only manage P9.

Credit where credit is due.

Russell's first point of buisness after the Friday night qualifying session was to thank the team back at the factory while he spoke to Sky Sports and F1TV, "Everyone at the factory has done an amazing job to give us a car we feel happier with. A base we can build upon."

Although the Brit isn't eyeing up the win, he does think Mercedes have something up their sleeve for tomorrow "Ultimately, Max is still at the front and we still have some catching up to do. When we look at the last two years in Bahrain and our race pace, starting P3 tomorrow is a great place", continuing later "We hope we haven't compromised the race pace at all. Red Bull are so strong at the moment, the race for all of us is second. But nobody knows."