Max Verstappen has described the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton as “unbeatable” heading into Sunday’s Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Russell claimed his maiden F1 success with victory in the Sprint on Saturday, passing Verstappen on track to move into the race lead.

The Dutchman then slipped behind Carlos Sainz following a brief but aggressive exchange which left the Red Bull with damage.

He then fell to fourth as Hamilton found a way through, a result which will translate into a third-place starting position owing to a five-place grid drop for Sainz.

That also means an all-Mercedes front row for the first time in 2022 at a venue Red Bull is, according to Verstappen, struggling for tyre life.

“They look unbeatable, but we’ll analyse everything,” the world champion-elect said of the threat Mercedes poses tomorrow.

Verstappen was one of only two drivers to start the Sprint on the medium tyres and was forced to defend from Russell in the opening laps.

He took the lead from Kevin Magnussen at the start of Lap 3, but by Lap 12 had the Mercedes for company once again.

After two unsuccessful attempts, Russell finally made the move stick into Turn 4 shortly after the midway point of the 24-lap encounter.

“It was a bit more difficult than expected,” Verstappen noted of the medium tyres.

“I didn’t expect to have that deg, but even on the soft tyre we wouldn’t have been fast enough.

“We’re clearly struggling on keeping the tyres alive, so this is something we need to try and fix for tomorrow, even though there’s not a lot you can do.

“But I mean, it can’t get worse than this.”

Contact with Sainz resulted in damage to Verstappen’s front wing, the Red Bull shedding its end plate soon after.

The pair clashed into Turn 1, the Ferrari making contact with the RB18 with its right-rear wheel.

“It’s tiny but it broke my end plate and a little bit of the structure that luckily didn’t fall down,” Verstappen said of the exchange.

“At the end of the day, I would have finished fourth anyway with a complete front wing.”

It was a move Sainz described as a racing incident.

“I had to send it a bit under braking,” he said.

“Locked up a bit and went a bit long, which ended up having a bit of contact with Max.

“But I think that’s also fair. I think it’s part of racing.

“In the end, there was no main damage to both of us.

“It reminded me a bit of the pass I did on Checo [Sergio Perez] here in 2019, where I went very close to the inside wall, which was quite tight, but I made it stick.

“So, yeah, quite happy about it.”

Verstappen will be joined on the second row by team-mate Sergio Perez, while pole-sitter Kevin Magnussen will take the start from eighth.