After an embrace in the Chinese GP paddock, George Russell moved to pass on further congratulations to Lewis Hamilton over his Sprint pole.

Russell, meanwhile, will line-up P5 in what he feels was an accurate reflection of his pace, while McLaren’s performance – having missed out on the front row – was not what Russell had expected.

Chinese GP Sprint: Mercedes in the victory hunt?

Following a challenging Ferrari debut for Hamilton in Melbourne, the seven-time World Champion unleashed a new lap record to take pole for the Sprint race in China, with former title rival Max Verstappen to line-up alongside him on the front row in the Red Bull.

The crowd roared for Hamilton as he parked his Ferrari in front of the ‘1’ sign and acknowledged their adulation, with his former Mercedes team-mate Russell also coming over to offer a congratulatory hug.

The plaudits for Hamilton continued when Russell spoke to the media after Sprint qualifying.

“To be honest pretty happy with the lap in Q3,” said Russell of his own performance.

“Well done to Lewis to get pole. That was a pretty great lap.

“I think P5 was where we were were today. It was strange in Q2, at one moment I was outside the top 10, the next I jumped up to P2 and it didn’t feel any different, to be honest.

“We always know it’s a bit tricky with the tyres, and with the Sprint race, you’ve only got so few laps. You’ve got to really nail it. And today, we did okay. P5 is not a bad place to start.”

And from P5 on the grid, sharing that third row with McLaren’s Lando Norris, Russell believes Mercedes have “a shot” on Saturday.

“I think it can just go any way between the top couple of teams,” he suggested.

“It was a bit of a surprise with McLaren, because they were flying in practice, flying in Q1 and Q2, and then at the end, Lewis and Max did a good job, and we were sort of right behind them as well.

“But I think we’ve got a shot in the Sprint. I think that could be quite an interesting race.”

More key talking points after China Sprint qualifying

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Russell’s Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli heads the fourth row after his first experience of F1 Sprint qualifying.

In that format, medium tyres were mandated for SQ1 and SQ2, but it was in the third and final segment – where the softs came out to play – that Antonelli struggled.

“It was looking good,” he reflected on his Sprint qualifying. “I think SQ2 was pretty tight and I was feeling good with the car, but on softs, I really struggled in that first lap, especially.

“I felt the grip was very poor. I think warm-up was not optimal on my side. And when I started the lap, the tyres were too cold. And I really struggled during the whole lap, to be honest, to extract grip.

“But yeah, still, better qualifying than Melbourne for sure, and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”

Put to him that he appears to have much more confidence in the Mercedes now, Antonelli replied: “Definitely.

“I mean, on mediums I was feeling really good to be honest. Especially lap two, I was always able to find time.

“So the feeling was good out there, but yeah, shame that on softs didn’t go as well.”

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