After four races George Russell has 21 points clear of Lewis Hamilton in the Drivers’ standings. An unimaginable situation on the eve of the championship, although the value of the driver who arrived after three years of apprenticeship with Williams is indisputable. The seven-time world champion did not have any particular unfortunate episodes to the detriment of a very gritty race.
TO Imola, tracked in the inclement past with George Russell – protagonist of a tragicomic mistake in 2020 under the Safety Car regime, warming the tires when he occupied the tenth position and then guilty in the accident with Valtteri Bottas 12 months ago – the 1998 class put a huge piece to the nightmare weekend of Mercedes bringing home 12 points which at least allowed the Brackley team to respond to the ‘sprint’ of McLaren, third with Lando Norris. Russell started from eleventh position on the starting grid and after the chaos at the start he was already in sixth position.
The ‘number’ of the Mercedes driver’s race was Kevin Magnussen’s winning attack on the Variante Alta, then it was suffering in the end in keeping behind Valtteri Bottas, who had more pace with Alfa Romeo than Mercedes. Charles Leclerc’s spin promoted Russell to fourth position, the same one he occupies in the drivers’ standings behind Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
At the finish line, his track engineer paid the Englishman due tribute for a capital performance net of a judged car undriveable by Toto Wolff. Below is the exchange of words between the Mercedes wall and an exhausted, but satisfied, Russell.
Track engineer: “Well done, I don’t know how you did it, fourth position”.
Russell: “Nice work guys, it was really hard. Excellent comeback, Sunday is always the day that counts “.
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