Russell hints at 'surprise' contender for Hungarian GP

George Russell believes Sergio Perez could be a contender for the Hungarian Grand Prix following a strong practice showing from the Red Bull driver.

Perez has been the subject of speculation around his future following a poor run of form, in which he has scored only 15 points in the past six races. 

The Mexican driver is also running a different car configuration to Max Verstappen across the Hungaroring weekend. Perez has the majority of a major new upgrade package on his RB20 bar a new engine cover and sidepods being evaluated on Max Verstappen's car.

In free practice two, Verstappen finished second to Lando Norris with Perez fourth, just two-tenths of a second behind the Dutchman, although his fastest lap was on the medium C4 tyres and not the soft C5 rubber. 

This performance piqued the interest of Russell, who was the lead Mercedes in fifth place with Lewis Hamilton seventh. 

"I think anything can happen, and I am excited to see what we can do," Russell explained. "We will be in the mix again for the top four positions.

"And Checo seemed quite quick, so that might be a bit of a surprise having a fight there as well. He was really quick."

Mercedes deficit hits again

Over recent races, Mercedes has been able to fight for pole positions and race wins after upgrades unlocked performance within the W15. 

However, Russell noted that in the high air and track temperatures of Friday in Hungary, Mercedes seemed to be on the backfoot, a trait he feels needs investigating. 

"We definitely got more laps in than most in the long runs across FP1 and FP2, the McLarens are looking really quick and to be honest, Lando is flying at the moment," he said.

"I don't think Max is too far behind, and there is probably a power difference between those two in qualifying and then in the race run, Lando and Max look a little bit out in front. 

"We need to understand because in the hot conditions of Austria and Barcelona, we were off the pace versus those two drivers, and in the cooler conditions of Silverstone and Montreal, we were ahead.

"It is something we need to work on."