George Russell felt like he was "battling with one hand behind his back" in qualifying for Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver will start the race in third, two places behind team-mate and drivers' championship leader Kimi Antonelli at Spa-Francorchamps.

Russell initially qualified in fourth, but he was promoted one place due to Lando Norris taking a 10-place grid penalty.

The Brit has recovered his form in recent races, winning the Austrian Grand Prix in between second-place finishes at Barcelona and Silverstone, but he still feels he is suffering from reliability issues compared to his team-mate.

Averaging 17.1 points per race, Russell is enjoying the highest points-per-grand prix average of his Formula 1 career.

Russell is one win away from his most successful F1 campaign in terms of race victories (currently on two), but he is not overly optimistic about his chances of winning in Belgium.

"Anything can happen, but the truth is battling against my team-mate, who is such an incredible driver and doing such a great job at the moment, in the best of times is a tall order," Russell told Sky Sports.

A great effort to get P3 despite some limitations.

We’ll continue working hard to get on top of the issue  pic.twitter.com/JQr2PjmYkJ

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 18, 2026

"I feel confident, head-to-head, that I can achieve it.

"But when it feels like you are battling with one hand behind your back, it's a challenge.

"But we had the issue in Silverstone and ended up P2 on the podium, so I pray I'm going to endure the pain of this issue and hope for a great result and try to find a solution for next week [in Hungary]."

Mercedes have placed at least one of their drivers on the podium in each of the opening nine grands prix of the 2026 season.

Only twice before have they extended such a streak through the first 10 races of a campaign: 19 in 2014 and 10 in 2019.