Russell surges as Antonelli gets ’wake-up call’

George Russell has emerged from Formula 1’s summer break looking like a renewed title threat, beating championship leader Kimi Antonelli throughout the Dutch GP weekend so far.

The newly engaged Mercedes driver took Sprint pole and victory at Zandvoort and will start the main race from second, again ahead of Antonelli in third.

Russell says the difference is partly mental after an inconsistent first half of the season.

"I just feel, I think after the break, I just feel way more relaxed," said the Briton. "I don’t feel like I’ve got anything to lose."

"The pressure’s off. I’m just going to go out, enjoy it, and I don’t even really feel in a fight. It’s not mine to lose, it’s mine to gain."

Russell still refuses to call Zandvoort a complete turning point after a season disrupted by reliability and difficult weekends.

"It has not been a clean season whatsoever with all of the issues that we’ve had," he explained. "But I just feel way more relaxed."

He also insists the title fight remains wide open.

"There’s more points on offer from this point until the end of the season than we’ve had so far. It ebbs and flows, and it’s far from over."

Antonelli, meanwhile, described Zandvoort as a useful warning after errors in both Sprint qualifying and main qualifying.

"It was a very good wake-up call this weekend, that you can never lower your guard," said the teenager.

"I did a mistake yesterday and today I did a mistake in Q3. I just feel this weekend is a good wake-up call, and to just again put things in the right place at the right time and just deliver the result when it counts."

With Lando Norris starting from pole, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admits the team has lost some of its early-season development advantage to McLaren and Ferrari, but says more substantial upgrades are coming.

"That won’t happen in the next few races, but when we go to Southeast Asia, we’ll be making a bigger step - specifically for Malaysia," he said.

He also confirmed the much-rumoured ADUO power unit development for Monza.

"An engine update is coming for Monza," said Wolff.

"However, we will have the disadvantage there of having to move to the back of the grid with Kimi and the installation of the new engine. That is obviously unfortunate."