George Russell not solely climbed into the factors after beginning eleventh within the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he managed to safe an extra level after choosing up the quickest lap of the race within the closing laps.
However, in his personal phrases the Mercedes driver was “disappointed” with himself following the trouble in Baku.
On a restart following an early security automotive, Russell “made a mess” of his begin, placing himself in a tough place. Instead of combating up the sector, Russell was compelled to accept a factors end. When that was assured within the closing laps, he got here into the pits to make a late swap to the tender tyres in an try and safe the quickest lap of the race, and the extra level.
He pulled that off, but it surely was little solace given what may have been.
“I’m a little bit disappointed with myself today. I made a really good start and got in a decent position. I made a good move on Stroll to get past him into the pit lane but I then made a mess of the restart,” mentioned Russell in an announcement launched to the media, together with SB Nation. “I was defending from Lance and almost ran into the back of Fernando [Alonso]. I then ran wide and got my tyres dirty. Ultimately that’s why both Lance and Lewis got past. From there, it was line astern.”
Instead of difficult for P5, Russell rapidly discovered himself again in P8 and hoping for a break. He didn’t maintain again his self-criticism when he subsequent radioed into pit lane.
“Well that was a s*** restart, sorry guys,” mentioned the driving force.
Unfortunately for Russell, he couldn’t battle his approach again up the grid, so when it grew to become clear he was locked into the factors, Mercedes made the choice to carry him in and alter to the softs, to take a run on the bonus level. Russell managed to safe the quickest lap, however following the race he considered that small victory as an offshoot of his earlier error.
“I’ll take the extra point for fastest lap but the only reason we had that opportunity was because we were in a bad position. It was close pace-wise between ourselves, Ferrari and Aston Martin and small differences can make a big change in terms of results,” mentioned Russell. “Whether we finish P4 or P8 though, it’s far from first so we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
It was a slightly dramatic week for the Mercedes driver, who bought into an on-track scrap with Max Verstappen in Saturday’s Sprint race. Contact between the 2 vehicles triggered injury to Verstappen’s RB19, and resulted in a tense post-race chat between the 2 drivers.
Russell maintained following the Sprint race that he was within the clear, and that he wouldn’t merely again down from a problem:
Despite Russell’s frustration with himself, Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin was extra upbeat in his post-race evaluation, pointing to his race tempo. “George had a really good opening lap, getting through some key cars early on. He was able to take the stop under the Safety Car but then struggled on the restart and lost a couple of places. Similarly to Lewis, he just couldn’t make a pass despite having a bit more pace so our only consolation was a point for fastest lap at the end.”
Mercedes will look to enhance in subsequent weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.