George Russell reveals Mercedes move to avoid 'dicey' repeat

George Russell is hopeful Mercedes has an ace up its sleeve to combat the fast-starting Ferraris across the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.

Russell will start from pole following the sprint qualifying session at the Shanghai International Circuit, finishing almost three-tenths of a second quicker than team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who is under investigation for impeding McLaren's Lando Norris during SQ2.

Russell, though, is mindful of the Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, who start fourth and sixth on the grid.

In the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, Leclerc came from fourth on the grid to power past Russell and Antonelli, along with Red Bull's Isack Hadjar, and lead out of the first corner.

What followed over the opening 10 laps was a fascinating duel between Leclerc and Russell, with the lead changing hands on several occasions.

In the hope of avoiding a repeat in the sprint race, he said: "Since Melbourne, everything we've been working on has been about trying to get off the line better, seeing what we can do. I think we've found some improvements.

"Melbourne was obviously slightly dicey on the opening laps than we would have liked, but I guess we will find out in the morning."

Russell, though, was imperious in qualifying, and clearly he has a good car underneath him at a very different circuit compared to Melbourne's Albert Park.

"The car's been feeling amazing," he said. "We knew after Melbourne we had a really good car, the engine's performing really well, and today was a real joy to drive.

"I'm intrigued to know what the lap times are compared to last year because it felt really quick, and that was pretty cool. Very different to Melbourne."

Russell's time was four-tenths of a second slower than his personal lap in sprint qualifying in Shanghai last year, and seven-tenths slower than Hamilton's pole lap.