Russell predicts exciting Qatar GP after McLaren's 'infuriating' Sprint race tactics

George Russell is expecting an exciting Qatar Grand Prix starting alongside Max Verstappen on the front row, after being infuriated by McLaren’s defensive teamwork in the Sprint.

Verstappen secured pole position ahead of Russell by just 0.055s on Saturday night, turning around what had been a tough weekend up to that point as he was uncompetitive in the Sprint. Russell also started on the front row in the shorter race but saw the McLaren drivers work together to keep him at bay, and he wants a different type of battle on Sunday.

“I’m just excited,” Russell said. “Hopefully we can have a proper race rather than this team orders stuff. It's going to be a good race. I think we'll all be going for it.

“It's actually great that Max is in the mix as well. I was really surprised at their turnaround because they looked really off the pace yesterday, off the pace this morning. And obviously they were both in Q3 and Max on pole, so I think we've got a good race on our hands.”

Oscar Piastri got past Russell at the start of the Sprint before leader Lando Norris give Piastri DRS for the majority of the race, helping defend from Russell on the pit straight. Russell says the approach was understandable but did not provide a good spectacle in his opinion.

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“It was obviously so frustrating every lap, Lando backing up, giving Oscar the DRS. I understand why they did that. But when you're out here, you're fighting, you want to give it everything, and you want to put a race on for the fans, it was just pretty infuriating. But nevertheless, it was P3 and this afternoon is going to be the important one.”

Russell was also critical of some of Piastri’s defensive driving in the Sprint and believes he could have fought for victory to back up his win in Las Vegas last weekend.

“Obviously, we went wheel-to-wheel and into Turn 1 on one of the laps," he said. "I was on the inside and he closed the door pretty aggressively. We made contact. We were lucky to both stay in the race there, and then a few laps later I committed to the inside and he pulled across pretty late. When you're doing, you know, 330kph, 320kph into Turn 1, and there's a big speed difference and there's a closing of the door so late, it’s pretty sketchy.

“But it's just the Sprint. I take a lot of positives from the result because I think if Lando wasn't being a team player, I think we'd have got past Oscar and could have had a good fight with Lando.”