Lando Norris <\/a>holds a 12-point lead over Verstappen and needs only a podium to secure the title.<\/p>\nVerstappen starts from pole position but must win the race with Norris finishing lower than third.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Viaplay after qualifying, Russell explained why he hopes Verstappen keeps the lead at Turn 1.<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope Max is still leading after Lap 1. He\u2019s not just going to drive into the distance, you don\u2019t need to drive like a hooligan, not do anything crazy just to manage the pace..<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see many drivers do this.. Monaco, Singapore, this is normal. Hopefully for us he\u2019s still leading after lap 1, and then I\u2019m sure there will be some opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell will \u201ctreat it like any other race\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell is set to start the race from fourth on the grid, directly behind the three title contenders.<\/p>\n
The British driver has no plans to change his approach as he looks to end the year on a high.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mood is the same as any other race to be honest,\u201d Russell explained.<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\u201cI know what\u2019s on the line for those three but I\u2019ve got to treat it like a normal race. I think in normal circumstances we don\u2019t have the pace but obviously if Lap 1 finishes in the order we start the race I can\u2019t imagine Max just driving off into the sunset so there could be opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am going to treat it like any other race. If there\u2019s an opportunity or a gap\u2026 if this was race one of the season I wouldn\u2019t be aiming to do anything reckless but I am not going to leave opportunities on the table. I want to finish on the podium and finish this year on a high. I have got to be honest, I won\u2019t sleep better or worse no matter who wins the championship tomorrow. I will be doing my own thing and go from there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not the intention of any driver. As I said, I won\u2019t be risking more. I won\u2019t be risking less. I\u2019m just going about my business as normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell has warned McLaren that Max Verstappen will be able to back them up without doing \u201canything…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,3875,825,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-331801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-george-russell","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}