{"id":329529,"date":"2025-12-07T03:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T03:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/329529\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T03:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T03:35:10","slug":"russell-pledges-to-be-verstappens-in-the-mix-man-in-fight-against-norris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/329529\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell pledges to be Verstappen’s ‘in the mix’ man in fight against Norris"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell<\/a> will start the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix<\/a> behind the three championship contenders.\"norris-abu-dhabi-gp-f1\"\/<\/p>\n

Lando Norris needs a podium to clinch the title in Abu Dhabi. Photo: Race Pictures.<\/p>\n

The British driver will thus get off the line in P4 after squeezing the maximum from his Mercedes W16 on Saturday evening’s qualifying session.<\/p>\n

“I think realistically I knew we weren’t in the fight with the top three,” Russell told GPblog after the session. “I was top of Q2 but those three drivers were on the used tyre so I overpushed in Q3. <\/p>\n

“It wasn’t a clean session, but the result was never going to be higher than P4,” Russell added before stating that his radio comment suggesting Verstappen could give him a tow for the last Q3 run was all for Red Bull’s ears, as the Dutch driver needs to win the race and for Norris to finish out of the podium places to clinch his fifth consecutive crown.<\/p>\n

Russell wants to be the driver ‘in the mix’ to aid Verstappen<\/p>\n

“Yeah, well it was more of a hint to Red Bull on their pit wall to sort of consider it,” Russell continued. “Because obviously Max went early in Q3, run he was in a position to do that and they obviously need somebody in the mix.”<\/p>\n

And that somebody might just be Russell, given his P4 starting position. “I mean if we finish lap one in the order we start the race, then definitely [there will be opportunities]. He’s [Verstappen] not just going to drive off into the distance and hand Lando an easy podium. <\/p>\n

“But everything can change after lap one. If Lando makes a good start and gets the lead, the championship’s done and dusted. So we’re not at the pace, but I’m confident there’ll be opportunities,” Russell concluded.<\/p>\n

Marko counts on Norris suffering from Verstappen inflicted jittersHelmut Marko praised Red Bull\u2019s development and Max Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s qualifying lap in Abu Dhabi, noting the team improved the car significantly after Friday\u2019s understeer issues, and suggested Lando Norris<\/a>, starting alongside Verstappen, tends to be nervous in that position. Read his full coments here.<\/a>Want to stay up-to-date with what happens in the F1<\/a> paddock? Then GPblog’s F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog’s YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell will start the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix behind the three championship contenders. Lando Norris needs a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[75200,49,48,578,28673,576,577,3024,591,1885,590,2190,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-329529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-abu-dhabi-grand-prix","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-news","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-george-russell","16":"tag-lando-norris","17":"tag-max-verstappen","18":"tag-mclaren","19":"tag-red-bull-racing","20":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}