Such is the McLaren's superiority, George Russell believes the world champions can already switch focus to next year's contender.

The Briton was speaking after claiming a spot on the second row of the grid, albeit 0.45s down on the Woking pair.

"It's what we expected to be honest," said the Mercedes driver. "We've seen how strong they are.

"It seems catchable," he added. "There's been times Red Bull have started this part of the season as strong. But, clearly, I mean, they're in such an advantage because they can stop development now and go fully on '26 and it's difficult to overcome that gap."

With the 2026 rules overhaul representing one of the most wide-ranging in living memory, going into this season teams were already facing a stark choice, when to give up on this year and switch focus to next year.

"I think Red Bull, they started the (2024) season off so far ahead of everyone but I don't think people overtook them in terms of development," said Russell. "I think they brought some things to the car but went backwards or had some things clarified and went backwards. If you've got a six-tenths advantage at the start of a year nobody finds six-tenths throughout the course of a year."

The Briton believes that much of McLaren's advantage is how it is able to use its tyres.

"You've only got to look at their strength in Singapore, their weakness in Vegas and how good they were in the race pace in Bahrain," he said. "It's all tyres. If you're strong in sector 3 that only points to tyres," he insisted. "They're doing something pretty special that's for sure.

"We always hoped that it could be closer, but that was the reality and fair play to them."

Convinced that McLaren is in a league of its own, Russell believes the battle behind could spring some surprises.

""It's kind of as we expected it, McLaren out front with the comfortable gap, and then I feel like this season can be anyone's game between ourselves, Red Bull and Ferrari," he said. "But you've got surprises like Yuki and Hadjar, who has been really competitive this weekend.

"The Williams has shown great signs of qualifying pace," he added, "but in terms of the race, that's what we're going see."

Looking ahead to tomorrow, and predictions that the weather could turn things on their head, he said: Tomorrow is anybody's game as it always is in the rain, but if it was dry I expect that gap from McLaren to probably increase in the race pace. They've got a massive advantage it seems in sector 3.

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