Sainz says Russell's Mercedes success shows the difference between cars

George Russell impresses so far during his debut weekend for the Mercedes team. He missed pole position by just 0.026 seconds, and will start the race from the first row of the grid.

McLaren driver Carlos Sainz believes this makes the point that F1 is not a fair contest between teams. "It shows that the differences between the cars are too big, while almost the entire field could be within three tenths of a second," says Sainz to Autosport.com.

"It's a shame that a boy who fights for P15 every weekend suddenly misses the pole by a hair in a winning car. For me, this shows what Formula 1 misses, it could be a much nicer show if the cars were more equal and the driver could make the difference," Sainz said.