Coulthard backs Russell to end Antonelli's five-race winning streak in Barcelona

David Coulthard has backed George Russell to break Kimi Antonelli’s dominant run of form at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, where the Mercedes team-mates arrive separated by 68 points in the drivers’ championship.

Antonelli, 19, heads into Spain with five consecutive grand prix victories to his name and a commanding 156-point tally at the top of the standings. Russell, who won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and the Chinese sprint race, has slipped to third in the championship on 88 points after a difficult mid-season stretch of bad luck and poor results.

“I think it’s going to be George’s comeback,” Coulthard said on the Up To Speed podcast. “George is going to be winning in Barcelona, and he’s going to come out swinging, and it’s going to be like Rocky 3.”

Not everyone in the paddock shares that view. Former F1 TV presenter Will Buxton, co-host of the same podcast, argued that Antonelli’s current form makes him almost impossible to stop.

“Kimi for the win. Kimi six in a row. He is breathing rarefied air,” Buxton said. “There is a looseness, a joy, just a oneness that Kimi has at the moment that I think is going to be really, really hard for anybody to topple. He’s got almost twice the points of his team-mate heading into Barcelona. You don’t drive the way that Kimi drove at Monaco unless you are in a very, very comfortable place.”

Behind Antonelli in the championship, seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton sits second on 90 points, just two ahead of Russell in third. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri complete the top five with 75 and 60 points respectively.

On-track action at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya gets under way on Friday 12 June with the opening two practice sessions.