
After spending the winter hoping it would be able to close the gap with Red Bull, Mercedes instead found itself further adrift in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, slipping to being the fourth quickest team behind Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin.
But, while Russell still qualified behind a car from each of those teams in Jeddah, setting the fourth-fastest time six tenths off polesitter Sergio Perez, the Briton was buoyed by a much-improved performance from his W14 after doing plenty of experimental set-up testing on Friday, in conjunction with overnight work back at home in Brackley.