Russell: "Pretty stupid" to bet against Verstappen winning Italian GP

After qualifying second at Monza behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Verstappen will drop five places on the grid after taking a new ICE for this weekend.

It was a similar story at the Belgian Grand Prix, where Verstappen was hit with an engine penalty but cut his way through the pack with ease, taking the lead on Lap 12 despite starting the race from 14th.

Russell predicted at Spa that Verstappen would win "comfortably" and he expects the Red Bull driver to do the same on Sunday at Monza.

“We’re not too focused on him”, Russell said. “It doesn’t matter what he does and what they do, they will finish ahead of us ultimately. 

“Probably be in the lead after 15 laps, maybe. I don’t think it’s as easy to overtake here as in Spa but with the pace they’ve got, they will be slicing through.”

He added: "Got to be pretty stupid to bet against it. He just needs to keep his nose clean in the first two laps and he’ll cruise to victory."

Russell qualified sixth at Monza but is expected to start the race from the front row, benefitting from Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton’s penalties.

Despite the strong grid position, Russell admitted that the 1.4s deficit to Leclerc was “a bit shocking”.

“I think the session just ran away from us to be honest,” Russell added. “Q1 started off really well, a few tenths behind Ferrari and I thought that realistically we’d be three to seven tenths behind, but the 1.4[s} was a bit shocking. 

“Q3 was a bit of a mess and then we took a risk at the end, not running on a new set of tyres to save for tomorrow. I am glad that Lando or Fernando didn’t jump us because obviously that was the fight for second place on the grid tomorrow. 

“I am not too disappointed but for our overall learning, it’s a bit of a shame we were so far off the pace.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, Russell believes Mercedes shouldn’t compromise their own result by trying to fight quicker drivers such as Verstappen.

“I think we need to focus on ourselves," he explained. “We’ve seen, probably last week and in Budapest, that when we’re trying to fight with the cars that are ultimately faster than us we end up compromising our overall result. I’d like to think we can fight with Charles. 

“I think fighting with Max, no chance, they are far quicker than us. Trying to stay ahead of Checo and Carlos, who are obviously coming back from the field. A podium has got to be a minimum for us. I hope we can have a clean start and at least put up a bit of a fight.”