Photo Credit: Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team
It was a bitterly disappointing end to the Singapore Grand Prix for George Russell. After losing a place to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on the opening lap, Russell kept with the both Ferrari’s and regained his second place after the first round of chaotic pit stops as everyone dived into to change tyres under the safety car.
When we saw the Virtual Safety Car come out to clear Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, Mercedes elected to give up track position to Norris and Leclerc and pit for fresh boots and ultimately hope to challenge for victory with their vastly fresh rubber.
With Russell and Hamilton now P4 and P5, they were much quicker than the cars in front and easily passed Leclerc which made for a thrilling final few laps with first to fourth covered by a mere 1.7 seconds at one point.
With the Spaniard of Sainz putting in some excellent defensive driving and backing up just enough to give Norris the DRS, this kept the stalking Mercedes duo at bay.
With Russell desperate to find a way passed Norris, he knew if he did, he’d probably have an easier fight against the Ferrari with the aid of DRS. This desperation proved to be enough to seal Russell’s fate and he tagged the wall on the entry to turn 10 and went straight on and out of the race with damage on the last lap.
A visually emotional Russell after the race admitted it was a “millimetre lapse of concentration” that cost him dearly.
“Yeah, I have no words to be honest. Such a long race, a physical race, difficult to keep concentration. Carlos was doing a great job backing the pack up and not allowing us to do the alternative strategy.
“I think we were half a car length from winning the race had I got passed Lando when I had the opportunity, and I think then we would have been able to get passed Carlos and then just the last lap, a millimetre lapse of concentration and game over, so sorry to the whole team.”
With Norris saying that he touched the wall at the same point on the previous lap, concentration and keeping 100% focused was the key difficulty in this hot and physical race. Russell spoke how everything went great, from the car performance, to qualifying and the race, and being on an aggressive strategy but in the end let himself down.
“It was a really challenging race, the tyres were dropping off and you’re pushing the limits. It’s how racing should be, you make a small mistake and you’re bitten for it. It’s heart-breaking after such a great weekend, the car felt great, qualifying was great, the race was great, we were bold with the strategy and I feel like I let myself down, and let the team down – racing it’s tough but we’ll come back,” concluded the Brit.
