George Russell predicts final result for Mercedes at Saudi Arabian GP tonight

Mercedes driver George Russell says that P5 is probably the best result he can hope for on merit this evening at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Silver Arrows have got their fair share of struggles to deal with at the moment with the W13 car simply not looking as good as the machines that Ferrari and Red Bull have produced.

Lewis Hamilton, in particular, is suffering at the moment with him set to start right towards the rear of the field whilst Russell at least had a better day of it in qualifying last night, with him set to start P6 this evening.

In terms of the race, though, he’s not expecting much progress if it all comes down to race pace and no accidents, with him telling Autosport:

“We’re not here to be battling for P5, P6. As a team, it was a very difficult day. The car is really on a knife-edge, and getting it in the right window is so difficult.

“Lewis and I went down different set-up routes. Clearly it didn’t work out, and it’s pretty clear in the data.

“So as a team, it’s a bit of a shame. From my personal side, I think I would have definitely been pleased with P5, half a tenth away.

“It was possible, if I really put absolutely everything together. But that’s just where we are at the moment.

“It’s tricky, because we put in all of our effort into solving this porpoising issue. And it’s not allowing us to focus on other things.

“As a driver, it’s not allowing me to focus on the driving as much, the fine tuning of the balance, the set-up; we can’t really do it, because all of our focus is on solving this issue. So we’ve got work to do.

“We need to just maximise the result. I think P5 will be our on merit result.

“We’re so far away from the front rows, best case P5, worst case in that region. We’ve just got to