SAO PAULO, Nov 7 - George Russell raged over the radio after the Mercedes driver was thwarted in a bid for a morale-boosting fastest lap in Sao Paulo Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday.

Russell carried a five-place grid penalty for an engine change but the Briton still wanted to finish the session on top.

Instead, he was told to back off after coming up behind Williams' Alex Albon and the rain then denied him any further chance of beating the pole time set by McLaren's Lando Norris.

"Mate, you told me to back off! What the hell?," Russell shouted over the radio after realising his day was done and he was only second fastest and would be seventh on the grid. "P2. I don't want to be P2. I want to be P1."

Team boss Toto Wolff said it was a 50-50 call and Russell, after so many ups and downs this season, had been in league of his own.

"I don't think it would have been enough for pole, but he drove perfectly all session and merited to be on pole," said the Austrian of the aborted lap.

"He deserved it but you can't make that call. It's 50% right or wrong.

Russell's teammate Kimi Antonelli clinched the title at the previous race in Mexico City and the Briton is now fourth in the battle for overall runner-up after starting the season as title favourite.

"That was definitely the pole lap," the 28-year-old said later. "Misjudgement on our side. Need to understand what happened as obviously the rain was coming and we should have just finished the lap.

"It depends on the weather," he said of his prospects on Sunday. "I mean, I felt good out there. It's the first time in a while I've felt confident in the car. I felt more confident in the wet than I do in the dry, I don't really understand why that was.

"I felt more like myself... unfortunately when it mattered we didn't execute."

Russell took the first win of his F1 career at Interlagos in 2022.

McLaren team boss Andre Stella acknowledged that the Briton was "probably the fastest car" in the third phase of qualifying.

"I saw that he was not impeded, but he just found Albon, and he couldn't close his second lap on inters, which I think up until that point was on par with pole position, if not faster," Stella told reporters. REUTERS