'Very ill' Russell reveals nightmare sleep issue ahead of Abu Dhabi qualifying

George Russell has joked that he may 'need to be ill more often', after another good qualifying session put him fourth on the grid ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Brit was just 0.343 seconds behind pole sitter Max Verstappen, whilst his seven-time world champion team-mate Lewis Hamilton failed to make it out of Q2.

Russell's performance was a huge boost for his Mercedes team, who needed to find some sort of response after Ferrari's Charles Leclerc managed to claim his fifth consecutive front row start.

Heading into the season-ending race, there is just four points separating Mercedes from Ferrari in the battle for second in the constructors' championship.

Mercedes behind in Ferrari battle

Now Russell, who has also tied up his qualifying battle with Hamilton at 11-11, has admitted that his recent one-lap pace has come when he's least been expecting it.

“I’ve been really ill the last two weeks and I’ve been really, really quick so I don’t know if I need to be ill more often or what it is," he told Sky Sports F1 after the session.

"But last two weeks I’ve just felt super comfortable in the car. Had about, on average, three hours sleep per night so maybe that’s the secret everyone’s missing," he suggested, before going on to talk about his session.

“I don’t know, it’s mixed feelings right now," he said. "We definitely would have taken P4 ahead of the weekend. But after this morning’s performance, we were quickest every single lap, we only improved I think six tenths from practice to qualifying.

"Considering it was much colder, we had much less fuel in the car. We didn’t make the jump that we should have so that was a little bit disappointing.”

READ MORE: Verstappen takes searing pole as McLaren chance slips away

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