“Fifth place would have been realistic,” Russell said.

F1

Sunday, September 15, 2024 at 3:22 PM

author: Tamas Balogh; Photo: Daimler Media

George Russell started the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in fifth place, but was overtaken at the start by Max Verstappen. However, he overtook the Dutchman in the final third of the race, and was relegated to fifth place – which he had taken from third place after a collision between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez on the penultimate lap!

“I was definitely surprised,” Russell admitted after the gesture. “I was happy to see Carlos and Checo okay. But anyway, everyone in the team worked incredibly hard over the weekend, I had to change the engine in my car and then in Lewis’s car, so a lot happened, but we worked hard.”

“The start of the race was really bad, I was down a lot, but on the hard tyres we were among the quickest, I think. It was great, I got past Max, and it's just a bonus to be able to stand on the podium,” he added.

According to Russell, it was a crazy moment when he arrived at the scene of the Sainz-Perez collision, as the sun was setting and visibility was not the best:

“Full speed into a carbolic wall on the penultimate lap! It was really crazy, the sun had already set, I could hardly see anything. I was shocked that the VSC didn’t arrive earlier, the cars could have been anywhere. As I said, I’m glad everyone is okay. It’s been a long and strange race and I’m happy to be on the podium.”

When interviewer Gunther Steiner asked the British whether Mercedes would be involved in the battle for podium places from now on, the pilot replied:

“We have to be realistic: we should have finished fifth today, that was the real result. Obviously if it wasn’t for Lando’s result in yesterday’s time trial, he would probably have been in front. So I don’t want to get carried away with the podium today, we still have work to do. Hopefully Singapore will have a slightly better weekend!”