World championship leader Kimi Antonelli says he will "re-establish the order" over George Russell at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia after being outperformed by his Mercedes team-mate in Azerbaijan. Antonelli had finished ahead of Russell in five successive Grands Prix but could only manage fifth in Baku, as the Brit produced his best weekend of the season to claim victory from pole position. The result cut Antonelli's lead over his Mercedes team-mate to 66 points with eight rounds remaining.

Although he salvaged some points, Antonelli's performance left plenty of room for improvement ahead of the second leg of the triple-header, with Malaysia set to host the rescheduled Bahrain Grand Prix amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Asked whether Russell is now his only title rival after Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton dropped more than 100 points back, Antonelli said: "He's always been my rival. But I'll make sure next week I re-establish the order and just make sure that I will be at back at my usual level because this weekend I was driving more like my grandma, so it wasn't the usual Kimi."

The 20-year-old Italian endured a scrappy weekend, missing a major chunk of track time in practice because of a technical issue before crashing in the first part of qualifying to leave himself starting from 16th on the grid. Antonelli admitted he was driving at only 80 per cent confidence throughout the race and expects a stronger performance in Sepang. Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord insists Russell's performance won't affect Antonelli psychologically.