George Russell breathes sigh of relief after Chinese nightmare: 'It could have been worse'

George Russell was left breathing a heavy sigh of relief after encountering issues with his Mercedes for the first time this season.

Russell followed up pole and victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix with a Chinese Sprint triumph, but foundered in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Briton required a front-wing change between Q2 and Q3, and then on his out-lap in the top-10 shoot-out, his W17 ground to a halt. Although he managed to get going again, it was stuck in third gear en route to the pits.

Mercedes at least found a fix, with Russell last out as he embarked on what proved to be his only run in Q3, ultimately, falling two-tenths of a second shy in beating team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who becomes the youngest pole-sitter in F1 history.

"Definitely damage limitation," said second-quickest Russell, at the end of qualifying. "In Q2, the front wing broke, and I was wrapping my head around that.

"Obviously, I went out in Q3, stopped on track, car wasn't restarting, couldn't change gear, so really happy to be standing here because at the start of the last lap I had no battery, no tyre temp, no nothing.

"But the team has done a great job to get us into this position. It could have been much worse. I'm very glad, and well done to this guy [Antonelli, standing beside him]. That's pole."

Russell and Antonelli, however, have the fast-starting Ferraris directly behind them on the front row, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Recognising the challenge that will be posed by the Scuderia duo, Russell added: "We need to take care of the guys in red.

"They were super fast off the line [in the sprint]. I'm sure Lewis is going to be pretty dicey at the beginning of the race.

"For us, it's about keeping it clean and putting on a good race for the fans, and we will see what we can do."