Complex weekend with a happy ending
Few would have seriously thought of a podium finish Mercedes on the occasion of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, especially after the problems suffered by the Brackley team during the Free Practice and at the end of the Qualifying. In the first case, the men of the Anglo-German team had to take cover by replacing the power unit of the single-seater George Russellexactly as happened later to his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was however penalised by Race Direction.
Unexpected podium
Furthermore, analyzing the GP, Russell should have crossed the finish line in 5th place ahead of his compatriot Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, at least until the unexpected episode that occurred on the penultimate lap which turned the final standings upside down: the contact between Sainz and Perez, fighting for third position, effectively gifted a podium finish to the English #63, his third top-3 finish this season after another third position in Canada and the victory in Austria.
The admissions
The first one not to get too excited about the result, acknowledging the difficulties faced by Mercedes this weekend and at the same time the luck that played in its favour, was Russell himself: “Today was a really strange race – he explained – the first stint was very difficult on the Medium tyre. I was more than a second off the pace at the end and was having trouble controlling the surface temperatures of the rear tyres. In the second stint, on the Hard tyre, the car felt great. In the last 20 laps I was a second quicker than the leaders. It’s difficult to understand exactly why this is happening and it’s a bit frustrating.”
“We were lucky to get on the podium and I’m happy that both Sainz and Perez are okay – he continued – We had a relatively quiet race up to P5 after I passed Verstappen, but we’ll take it. It’s a good reward for all the team’s efforts after an overall challenging weekend“.
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