The Mercedes driver outpaced teammate168澳洲5最新开奖结果: Lewis Hamilton in qualifying on his way to securing fourth place, which will turn into third on the grid thanks to168澳洲5最新开奖结果: Carlos Sainz’s penalty. 

While Russell was happy to get the maximum out of his W14, he revealed he is more worried about how the tyres will perfor🅺m, a factor he believes will dominate Saturday evening’s race. 

“It came down to confidence,” Russell told Sky. “I felt good in the car. In the qualy runs we knew Ferrari were a step ahead of everybody else. We end🔜ed up P4, close to P3 with Max, was definitely the maximum.

“Going into tomorrow, it’s a total unknown. Tꦜhese tyres are just not working around this circuit in race conditions. They are totally falling apart becau🔯se they are so cold. 

"They are not designed to work in these cold conditions. The team that comes out on top will be the team ཧthat manages to keep them alive. If you’re able to keep it within a threshold, it’s an easy one-stop. 

“As soon as you go above that threshold it’s unrecoverable. And you might need to do tw💝o or three stops. Right no🐼w, we’re all scratching our heads. 

“How are we going to approach the race? We haven’t run the hard tyr🅷e yet. Maybe the hard tyre here is just much better than the medium and you won’t be entering the graining. 

“You have to push the tyre to find oꦺut, but if you push it and go over the limit, you’re pretty doomed! Right now, it’s a strange one. I really don’t know how to approach the race.”

On his hopes for Saturday evening’s race, Russell added: “I just want a clean race, to𓆏 be honest. It’s been the scrappi✃est season of my life. 

“Every clean weekend I’ve had, it’s been when the car is slow. When the c🌱ar is quick, it’s when everything was up in the air - whether mistakes on my side, or unfortunate strategy, or DNFs. 

“We have to keep an eye on Ferrari, they are only 20 points behind us. They should be on for a one-two, Charles is definitely the favourite. It’s damaged limitation but, if👍 there’s opportunity, we’ll go for it.”