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Mercedes driver George Russell conceded that McLaren were a "step ahead" of the rest of the grid after a 1-2 finish at the first two Practice Sessions at the 2025 Bahrain GP. The British driver took over the reins of the W16 after sitting out the FP1 session and giving his car to reserve driver Frederik Vesti.
The three-time F1 race winner has made a positive start to the 2025 season and currently sits in P4 in the driver's standings with 45 points to his name from three races and one Sprint thus far, which includes two podiums. Russell looked comfortable behind the McLaren duo and finished P3 in the FP2 session at the Sakhir International Circuit.
While analyzing his performance in the all-important FP2 session, George Russell pointed out one area dominance for the world champions where they make a huge dent in terms of timings and told F1.com:
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"We expected McLaren to be a step ahead here and we saw that today. Long way ahead in the middle sector where tyres are overheating so we know we’ve got a bit of work to do but I think we’re in a position fighting for the next best I think."
"I think the Ferraris were on course for a pretty good lap, I think they had a bit of a bad last sector but I think it’s going to be close between ourselves, Ferrari and Max [Verstappen] but we just never know to be honest," he added.
George Russell finished over half a second behind the McLaren of Oscar Piastri and looked comfortably behind in the race simulations as well. However, the gap could be a step too far to cover for the German team even after making changes to the W16 overnight for FP3 and Qualifying.
George Russell cites the key difference between Bahrain GP to other races in 2025
Mercedes driver George Russell stated that he believed that the Bahrain GP would not be dependent on qualifying given track position played an important role in the first three race weekends.
As quoted by the aforementioned source, the 27-year-old reflected:
"I definitely feel, unlike the last three races, this won’t be dominated by Qualifying, this weekend is going to be dominated by race pace, tyre [degradation]. So of course you want to have a good Qualifying but the race is where the action will be."
George Russell's teammate Kimi Antonelli also gave his analysis of the Free Practice sessions and added:
"I think FP2 was quite positive. Single lap it felt quite good, I made a big mistake in sector one but overall I felt pretty good in the car."
Russell and Mercedes have looked like the closest challengers to the Woking-based outfit from Friday running and would hope to close the gap overnight by making setup changes to the W16 to fight for pole position on Saturday.
