Mercedes’ George Russell kept his podium finish streak alive with third place at the F1 Chinese GP. The three-time race winner was “pleased” to stand on the podium again.
Pleased to finish third
In qualifying, Russell split the McLarens by starting from second after trying something “different“. After qualifying, the Briton was expecting to finish third behind the McLarens.
Russell looked competitive in the first phase of the race after losing out to Lando Norris at the start.
However, he dropped away on the hards before Norris hit trouble with the brakes near the end.
The Mercedes driver felt “pleased” to take third and praised McLaren’s solid outing.
“It’s a great result finishing P3, especially in front of all these fans here. It’s just been amazing support for everybody this weekend, so thank you so much for that.“
“But yeah, [it’s a] really great race, [we’re] really pleased with the P3. We knew the McLarens were a smidge quicker than us at a few crucial points but well done to them.
The first to call the shots and a lonely race afterward
Russell was the first driver to suggest a one-stop strategy. The race became easier than he previously expected as the hard tyre lasted a very long time.
“I felt it from quite early on that a one-stop could be possible and it turned out to be slightly easier than we probably all anticipated.“
Russell hailed this Chinese Grand Prix as one of his best races in F1 and was once again really “pleased” with the result.
“The car’s been great this weekend. Probably one of my best weekends in Formula 1 in terms of the overall performance, so I’m really pleased with that, and just really maximising every single time out on track. So pleased again to be on the podium.“
Similar to the Australian Grand Prix, he ended up running a lonely race, behind the McLaren cars but marginally ahead from the rest. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc briefly challenged him for the position but it became pretty much straightforward after that.
“Charles was putting me under quite a lot of pressure for a few laps after the pit stop, and obviously it was a bit dicey with Lando [Norris] for a few laps, but from there on it was quite a straightforward race.“
