'No momentum' for in-form Antonelli with enforced break - Russell

George Russell believes Kimi Antonelli will not be able to carry any momentum from the second of his back-to-back victories at the Japanese Grand Prix due to the break in races.

Antonelli secured pole position at Suzuka but dropped to sixth at the start before climbing back into the lead courtesy of being able to take a pit stop under safety car conditions. That stop came one lap after Russell had stopped from ahead of his teammate, and although Antonelli now leads the drivers’ championship, the Briton believes the postponement of the upcoming races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia prevents momentum building.

“No, not at all,” Russell said. "It's three races down in 22, and one lap different [in Japan] and the victory would have been on my side and I'm confident of that. And in China, without the qualifying issue, maybe… I was three tenths ahead in the sprint qualifying, so maybe I could have been on pole there and won that race.

“So, it's just how it turns out. That's racing. We're now into a four week break, so there's no momentum to be carried. We're going to reset and go again for another race.”

Russell did bemoan his luck in the past two races after having been hit with a reliability issue in Q3 in China – limiting him to second on the grid – and then seeing Antonelli get ahead of him under safety car in Japan.

“Our start, normal, poor, safety car, one lap different and we'd have won the race,” he said. "So, that's sort of part of racing, but thereafter everything was just issues after one another. I couldn't recharge my battery at the safety car restart, so just Lewis [Hamilton] flew by me. And then obviously had the issue later in the race with Charles [Leclerc] and the battery where I just had no speed and he passed me. So, just one thing after another.

“I need to look at it. I don't really know why I pitted at that point. I think it was because Charles was coming, but what can you do? That is pure luck. If that was one lap later, we'd have won the race. And if there was no crash, maybe we would have regretted not pitting at that point. And in racing, sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it goes against you.

“It just feels like at the moment, the last two weekends, every issue we're having, it's on my side and I’m the one going through that pain. Just how it's turned out, just how it's panned out, really. I can't really give you more of an answer to that.

“It's like, sometimes people are having problems in practice. We've not had a single issue in practice this whole season. I've had the problems in qualifying. Lando [Norris] hasn't had any problems in qualifying, he's had all the problems in practice. So, it's just luck of the draw with these new cars.

“It's race three of 22, I'm not concerned at all, it's all here. And I know I've got what it takes to bounce back and not dwell on it.”