Title Antonelli's to lose, says team-mate Russell

George Russell says this year's world championship is Kimi Antonelli's "to lose" after the Briton's retirement from the last race in Canada.

Russell heads into this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix with a 43-point deficit to his Mercedes team-mate after the Briton's engine failed while leading in Montreal.

Italian Antonelli, 19, has won four races in a row, while Russell's only grand prix victory this year was in the season-opening race in Australia.

Monaco is the sixth round of what is now a 22-race season.

"If I look at it from my competitor's position, you're kind of in a position now that you've got such a buffer, it feels like you can only keep it or you can only lose it," Russell said.

"It's his to lose. My mindset is to enjoy every single race, try and win every single race, the same as I've done this whole season. I'm going to fight the same, I'm not going to change my mentality at all, nor am I going to let this put any more pressure on to me."

Antonelli rejected Russell's reasoning. "I don't really give weight to that line," he said, "because it's still so early in the season. I continue trying to excel, trying to maximise the car and see where we end up at the end of the season.

"It's difficult to think you can lose something when you don't have the championship. How can I lose it when I didn't win it yet?"

Russell, 28, has bemoaned a series of events going against him - including technical issues in qualifying in China, a safety-car intervention in Japan that handed the lead to Antonelli and the Canada problems - but says he has no reason to feel he cannot bounce back.

"I don't feel like I need to get every single result possible, because the season's long enough that over the course of the season, it will swing if you're the guy who's on top.

"So I just need to continue being the guy who's coming out on top, even if he's the one at the moment who's getting the results."

Russell said that his retirement in Canada "hurts" but added: "That's just the way racing goes."

And he pointed to his own junior career as a reason to stay positive.

"In Formula 2 (in 2018), I had, I think, five failures over the course of a year," he said.

"I came to Monaco, never been to Monaco before, and I broke down on the out lap in practice. And then went into qualifying, 15-minute session, four laps, and didn't qualify anywhere decent.

"I broke down on other occasions. The engine stalled, but then still went on over the course of a year to win the championship.

"So I take inspiration from those moments. And I think for everyone every year, you have a run of races where, I don't know why or how, everything just goes your way.

"And that's just how it goes sometimes when things turn. It's just a mentality I've got. I'm in a very good head space. The pressure feels off now. And there's just a huge amount of time to go."

Antonelli, who is in only his second season in F1, added: "I don't feel that much pressure. I feel pretty relaxed. I just keep doing what I'm doing, trying to raise the bar.

"George is a super-strong team-mate and he will make my life difficult."

Mercedes have won every grand prix this season, and the only time they have been beaten to pole or a victory was by McLaren's Lando Norris in the sprint in Miami.

But they are expecting to face a tough challenge particularly from Ferrari, but also McLaren, on the famous street circuit this weekend.

Ferrari's car is good in the corners, and its engine deficit will be less pronounced in Monaco, which is the least power-sensitive track on the calendar. McLaren's chassis is strong in slow-speed corners.

Antonelli said: "Miami is a race where we expected it would be difficult and Monaco is another. Ferrari has historically always been quick here, even when they did not have a fast car. I wouldn't be surprised if they were quick, and I think McLaren can also be quick."

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton is fresh from his best result yet for the Italian team, a second place in Canada, and said: "This track would probably bode better for us than some of the others. The long straights, we lost quite a lot of time, so obviously here we would lose a lot less and I don't think power is going to be necessarily so much of an issue. And our car is good in low speeds so I think we'll be competitive.

"I don't think we'll necessarily be the quickest, especially because after the Mercedes upgrade at the last track they were quite quick through the low speeds. But I think we'll be competitive."