Image source: Mercedes AMG F1
George Russell finished the Saudi Arabian GP in fourth place, which became third place temporarily, after Fernando Alonso was penalised for not serving a five second penalty appropriately. This was reverted after appeal, ensuring P4 for the Briton.
Mercedes is still struggling to close the gap to the front. However, they managed today to secure a good point haul with George Russell´s fourth place.
The British driver had started third but had lost the last podium step after Max Verstappen´s astonishing recovery. Alonso´s penalty after the podium ceremony awarded Russell a surprising third place that the Brackley-based team took as a booster, despite them having to return the trophy later on.
Russell finished the race satisfied and believes the hard work pay its dividends specially considering that the silver arrows dominated both Ferrari cars.
“When you put the hard work in and it pays dividends, you come away feeling satisfied. We finished ahead of both Ferraris on merit today and we know we’ve got a lot of performance to come soon.”
Russell understands that the gaps to the Red Bulls is still a big one to close but takes the positives from the weekend as a motivation booster for the future.
“The gap to the Red Bulls is still considerable, but we’ll take the positives from the weekend, keep fighting as hard as we can and focusing on ourselves.”
The young Brit believes the race was interesting and admits he knew the strategy against Lewis would pay off at the end on the race.
“It was an interesting race. After the Safety Car I was on the hard tyre and Lewis was behind on the medium. He had a bit more pace at the beginning, but I knew my pace would come at the end.”
Russell, before the decision was overturned, sad that the Spanish deserved the podium and that he was happy with P4, but that he also happily accepted the extra points and trophy to take back home.
“Fernando deserved to be on the podium today and I was pleased with P4. I’m not complaining too much about taking home a trophy though, and we will take the extra points!”
