Russell on missing out on podium in Sprint Race: ‘Now we have data'

George Russell looked to be in good shape in Qatar during the sprint race. The Briton could lead the race when his softs were in the optimal range, and eventually finished in P4 after Max Verstappen and the two McLarens could overtake him.

"A really satisfying race. I don't think we could have done any more than we did," Russell told Sky Sports. "Made a great start into P2, a really good overtake on Oscar, great restarts, all three of them were really good and that's sprint races, you don't know the answers because you don't get the practice during the race weekend so we know ahead of tomorrow now that that soft tyre doesn't work, it's probably gonna be a two-stop race in the end, P4, maybe one point lost but the good news is our pace over Ferrari looked good," the Briton summarised his sprint race.

"I mean, at the end of the day we all have the data, so if you go to a circuit like Barcelona which is already a three-stop naturally, nobody would attempt a one-stop because we have the data to tell you a one-stop won't work," Russell expanded on what tomorrow’s race could look like if three mandatory pit stops will be ordered by FIA.

"Going into the sprint race today nobody had that data because we only did nine laps in a row in free practice, now we've all got the data and it's going to be clear what is possible and I think it should just be down to the teams to judge, take a risk and the reward," he continued.

"I mean, huge congratulations to him, Red Bull, they've obviously, from the outset, Red Bull were far superior to everybody else and then Max has obviously just been on another level recently, so I can only congratulate him," the Mercedes driver praised his rival.

"We've got to look at ourselves in the mirror and raise our game to give them some trouble next year because, you know, nobody likes to see that dominant and we want to be there in the fight and put them under a bit of pressure," Russell concluded.