Russell: 'Ferrari and Red Bull will find a way past'

"We're not planning to defend and we're just driving off into the sunset. But I know the guys around me and even Max, they're not going to make it easy", Russell says during the FIA press conference.

The Mercedes driver took pole position in spectacular fashion on Saturday. Nobody saw this performance from Mercedes coming, because during the free practice sessions, Russell and Lewis Hamilton seemed to have trouble warming up the tyres and finding grip. In qualifying, however, they did better than the top two teams.

Russell: 'They'll find a way to get past'

Overall, Mercedes have repeatedly had a better race pace than qualifying pace this season. However, the team has often had to take advantage of mistakes by Ferrari and Red Bull Racing to finish on the podium. It will be a tough task for Russell to keep the top teams behind him.

"We feel like we have a faster race car. This is a good place where you need a good qualifying, no doubt, but it's still a circuit that if you have a faster race car, it counts for more than if you have a faster qualifying car. So if it's a two or a three stop race, you won't be able to defend, let's say, because the other cars can go early, they can go late and they'll find a way past."