Russell: "No doubt" Mercedes have pace to win

George Russell thinks Mercedes can still win a race during the Formula 1 2022 season, after the team showed promising pace at Zandvoort.

Lewis Hamilton led 14 laps of the Dutch Grand Prix before conceding the victory to Max Verstappen at the final Safety Car restart with just 12 laps to run.

The team haven't won a race since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but Russell thinks that Mercedes could still challenge for a victory in the remaining seven races.

"There's no doubt we've got the race pace to be able to win. Absolutely sure of that. And had we been starting P2/3/4 [so] we probably could have won the race today," Russell told media, including RacingNews365.com.

Win down to qualifying position, says Russell

After finishing second in the Dutch Grand Prix, Russell scored his sixth podium of the season.

Speaking on where Mercedes could take victory in the next couple of races, the Briton believes it will be down to the team's qualifying performances.

He added: "Ultimately it’s going to come down to our qualifying performance on a Saturday.

"If we continue to qualify P6 and P8 as we have done in the last two race weekends, we're going to really struggle to win a race.

"But we need to find a bit more magic in qualifying as we showed in Budapest."