After a tumultuous start to the weekend with a crash in second Friday practice and a race that didn’t unfold how he had hoped, George Russell was pleased with a 5th place finish at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
While Russell felt he “made a really strong start, […] I kind of got a bit snowballed from not getting my slipstream.”
“You’re kind of at the mercy of where the drivers in front of you go, and unfortunately we all went to the right, last year they all went to the left and I’d have been able to get the launch.”
The snowball effect of all these moves was that Russell would fall in line behind teammate Lewis Hamilton, but caught and passed him by lap 15.
He ran into trouble after his pit stop on lap 32, however, as one side of his front wing saw the flap collapse as he was working his way his back through the pack when passing drivers who had yet to stop.
“When I came out the pits behind [Oscar] Piastri, I pulled out down the straight and my front left flap just completely collapsed—I hit this bump, so that probably cost me a good three or four tenths for the remainder of the race, so that was tricky to hold on for 40 laps.”
Hamilton was able to catch up to Russell and, with the teammates free to race each other, had a spirited battle for about 15 laps, until the seven-time champion got around Russell on lap 66.
The younger Brit enjoyed the fight but was quick to mention Verstappen’s driving tactics, although not by name.
“It was nice to have the battle, and I mean it’s always good when you fight with Lewis because it’s hard and fair, and at the moment you’re seeing a number of manoeuvres that are […] getting beyond entertaining or beyond sporting.”
Asked about the Norris and Verstappen incidents, Russell referenced the Dutchman’s huge lunge against Lewis Hamilton at Interlagos in 2021.
“Yeah, I mean you can argue the first one was, again, maybe 60-40.
“The last one, it was, I’ve not seen anything like that since probably Brazil.”
Regarding those less sporting moves, Russell—a director with the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association—is confident that progress has been made toward curbing such aggressive driving.
“I think the stewards are totally on board with what needs to change, our view is, I think the biggest discussion is they want it to wait until ’25, so it’s something consistent through this year.
“I would say 19 out of 20 drivers said, ‘well, if it’s incorrect, make the change today’, and I’m glad to see those incidents were punished today.
“And I suspect moving forward in Brazil, what we saw today and what we saw last week, you won’t be able to get away with it.”
