Despite very English weather, the British were drowned in the Paulista rain on Sunday, during the Brazilian Grand Prix. Like Lando Norris, George Russell missed a great opportunity for victory at Interlagos, due to bad timing and a missed gamble with his pit stop. On the 29th lap, as the rain intensified and flooded the track, the Mercedes team wanted to take advantage of a Virtual Safety Car to change the tires of the No. 63. Unfortunately, the VSC disappeared just as the King's Lynn native entered the pit lane!
George Russell's bad luck did not end there, since three laps later, the red flag was displayed following Franco Colapinto's accident, a boon for Max Verstappen and the two Alpine drivers who remained on the track and who were able to calmly change their tires when the race was interrupted. At the moment of the red flag, the Englishman became furious with his team, aware that the race had just slipped away from him: “Shit!” I fucking said it! We should have stayed on track! »
“Everything was under control”regrets Russell
Starting back in 5th place after the red flag, George Russell then gained a position after Lando Norris' error on the restart. The Mercedes driver then got stuck behind Pierre Gasly and had to settle for 4th place, while leading the race in the first 30 laps. A huge disappointment for the Briton who confided at the finish of the race that he should have “follow your instinct, like in Spa” where he won with a one-stop strategy, before being disqualified.
“My opinion is that if we had stayed on the track, we would have been first on the restart ahead of [Esteban] Ocon, Max [Verstappen] et [Pierre] Gasly. Leading from the front is much easier. I don't know where we could have ended up, but I was pretty angry at that point because I wanted to stay on the track.”says George Russell, annoyed.
The two-time Grand Prix winner believes he was “comfortable” enough before his stop to stay on the track. “In the first 30 laps, everything was under control. We were 12 seconds ahead of 3rd place, managing my gap with Lando [Norris]. Obviously these three laps were very, very difficult halfway through the race, and that's why I wanted to stay [en piste] because I felt very, very confident that there would be a safety car or a red flag. Inevitably that's what happened because it was undrivable.”underlines George Russell. Bad times for the British in Brazil.
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