George Russell has asserted there is more pressure on the shoulders of Kimi Antonelli compared to his own as the F1 season enters its closing stages.
Antonelli remains the heavy favourite to seal his maiden championship this year as he sits on a lead of 66 points over Russell in the drivers' standings.
However, that gap was at 81 points before last Saturday's grand prix in Azerbaijan, with Antonelli's weekend hindered by a crash in qualifying that caused him to start from towards the back of the grid.
While Antonelli rose to fifth place, Russell claimed his third race victory of the season to eat into the championship deficit.
When asked by media including RacingNews365 if he feels he has less of a target on his back compared to Antonelli, Russell said: "Yeah, for sure.
"There's much less pressure on me than there is him. He's had an incredibly flawless season.
"[Friday] was probably his first mistake of this whole season in a proper session, qualifying, race, and he still came home in P5 [in the race]."
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Russell 'didn't consider myself' a factor in title fight
Russell began the campaign in strong form with a convincing victory at the season-opening round in Australia.
However, since then, Russell has failed to consistently match his team-mate, leaving him to concede that he was an outside bet in the title battle.
"I didn't really consider myself in this fight for a number of races, purely because my performance wasn't strong enough.
"I feel like if the season were to have started today, or since the summer break, I feel very much I would have been able to fight.
"Now I've got this big deficit. It can change quick. So I'm not chasing that. I'm chasing to win every race, and what will be, will be."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on the Azerbaijan GP but also look ahead to F1's return this weekend to Malaysia! Rumours linking Christian Horner with a return to the sport is a major talking point.
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