Even in Monaco the only smile in the Mercedes house came from George Russell. Even on the Principality track, the English driver managed to finish ahead of his much more bulky teammate Lewis Hamilton and managed to improve his starting position by crossing the finish line in fifth position.
Russell, despite a remarkably underwhelming Mercedes in Monte Carlo, was able to adapt to a car that continues to exhibit obvious design gaps. George is also the only rider this season to have finished all the races so far disputed in the top 5.
A record that highlights the excellent path taken by the Englishman in his debut year with the Brackley team.
For Russell, however, the only disappointment of the day came not from the track, but from the international direction who, for a change, lost his splendid overtaking on Norris.
“I think it was a positive race. In some moments with the hard we were the fastest on the track. It was a shame that my overtaking on Lando was not shown on TV. He came out of the pits just as I arrived in acceleration and I was able to overtake him in the wet. Then I managed the situation until the end, but it wasn’t easy ”.
Many drivers, including Pierre Gasly, at the end of the race expressed their disappointment at the delay in the start of the race. The Frenchman from AlphaTauri admitted that even in the wet it would have been possible to start at 3 pm and show the public the skills of the drivers in difficult conditions like those seen yesterday.
Russell was less strict with race management as he understood how the decision was made for safety reasons.
“It was frustrating at first, but when I saw how hard it was raining I thought the right decision had been made. For the referee it is always a difficult position. I wanted to start with the intermediates. I think we could have done 20 laps and then stopped when the rain fell very hard instead of putting it off all the time. But with hindsight it’s easy to say “.
George Russell, Mercedes W13, Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
In a weekend that once again saw Lewis Hamilton suffer at the wheel of the W13, Russell analyzed the weaknesses of Mercedes’ latest creation on an atypical track like that of Monaco.
“We need to find a little more downforce. We weren’t very competitive in the low speed corners. If we look at what happened in Barcelona we were among the fastest in the fast corners and straight, the exact opposite of what Monaco offers. We need to find more pace in qualifying because we can’t afford to have an Alpine or a McLaren ahead of us ”.
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