Having started the Australian Grand Prix in P7, George Russell was running a solid race for the majority of the laps, however on the last lap it all came undone for the Mercedes driver.
After Lewis Hamilton retired on the lap 17 with a suspected engine failure, Russell was the only Silver Arrows driver in the race.
During the last stages of the race, Russell closed in and then ran behind Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, when he lost the car and hit the wall, which ended up in a massive crash at turn 6 as the leaders started their final lap.
“I was half a second behind Fernando on the entry of the corner… and then suddenly, you know, before the apex, I was right at his gearbox… and lost the car.
“Ran wide, hit the wall and then it was obviously a dramatic few seconds after that but yeah, disappointing end to a difficult race.”
Onboard footage showed Russell in the middle of the track calling for a red flag. Race control, however, deemed the incident only worthy of a Virtual Safety Car — a perplexing decision even if it was the final lap.
“Red fag, red flag, red flag — I’m in the middle of the track, red flag!”
From Lance Stroll’s onboard footage, Russell was narrowly missed by the Canadian, who was urgently informed by his race engineer about the situation ahead.
Russell was asked whether Alonso brake-tested him, and he kept his response diplomatic.
“Well it’s clear that he [Alonso] braked, you know, a hundred metres before the corner and then went back on the throttle again and took the corner normally — we’ve already seen the data of that.
“I’m not gonna accuse him of anything until, you know, we’ve seen further, but I was right behind him for many, many laps. I was half a second behind him, approaching the corner and then suddenly, yeah, he’s slowed up very dramatically and gone back on the power.
“I just wasn’t expecting it. It caught me by surprise. As I said, that part’s on me, but it’s interesting that we’ve been called to the stewards, so intrigued to see what they have to say.”
Fernando Alonso was given a drive-through penalty for his actions, which when converted, added 20 seconds to Alonso’s race time — dropping him from P6 to P8.
The Spaniard has also been given 3 penalty points on his super licence.
