George Russell reveals Red Bull surprise as Mercedes on rare back foot

George Russell has revealed his surprise at Red Bull's pace in practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, with Mercedes lagging behind.

For the first time this season, a Mercedes did not place in the top three on a Friday as both Ferraris took first and second in the two sessions, with Max Verstappen of Red Bull in third both times.

In FP2, Russell did recover to place fourth, ahead of title rival and team-mate Kimi Antonelli, but was still nearly four-tenths slower than Lewis Hamilton's pace-setting time of a 1:13.026. 

Reflecting on Friday, Russell felt his Mercedes W17 was not "nailed" after major changes as he spoke of Ferrari and Red Bull's challenge. 

"We expected Ferrari to be the guys to beat, and a lot of people thought that was just chat, but they clearly seem to be," Russell explained.

"I think Red Bull have also been a bit of a surprise for us, we knew out of the races so far that this was going to be our most challenging, but it's probably been slightly more challenging than we would have hoped.

"But we did make some good improvements from FP1 into FP2, and we need to make the same step again overnight, as I don't think we nailed it, so there is room to improve. 

"The trends we've seen with Ferrari every year here and on street tracks have been for 10 years. 

"I think every car has like an inherent DNA, and their inherent DNA, especially on the mechanical side of the car, clearly works on street tracks, when the corner is dropping away. 

"We're doing everything we can to try and make those improvements, but if we can close the gap, can we overcome it? I'm not sure."