George Russell clarifies Mercedes team radio “confusion”: ‘I didn’t want to fight…’
There was some uncertainty over team radio at Mercedes when Hamilton - runn🃏ing on mediums after the Safety Car - caught up to the back of Russꦰell - who was on the hards.
During the race, Russell’s response to his race engineer was broadcast, leading to speculation that he’d rejected a team order to let his teammate through - Sky Sports reported after the race thﷺere was no instruction from Mercedes to Russ🉐ell.
Russell said to his engineer: “Alon🦩so has a five second penalty here let’s 𝔉fight later. I want to manage the tyres a little bit now.”
Shortly after, Russell pulled clear🐽 of Hamilton to finish comfortably fourth.
Clarifying what went on with Hamilton after the Safety Car, Russell told Sky: “It was an interesting race. After the Safety Car, I was on the hards, Lewis was on the mediums. So he probably had a bit more pace in the beginning, I knew my pace was coming a❀t the end. But t🌊here was a lot of confusion because I thought Fernando had a five-second penalty.
“So I didn’t want [Lewi🥂s and I] to be fighting among each other, and we both lose out to Fernando.
“I wanted to stay within distance, manage our tyres, then have a fair battle towards the en🔜d. I’m pleased with P4, the penalty to Fernando is pretty harsh. They are the deserving podium finishers. But I’m not complaining too much.”
It was another dominant display fr𓆏om Red Bull, who took another 1-2 finish.
Despite a Safety Car period, Russell finished over 25s behind race winner 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Sergio Perez.
Assessing Red Bull’s performance in Saudi Arabia, Russell compared it tཧo Mercedes’ domination at the start of the V6 hybrid era in 2014.
“Give credit to what Red Bull have done,” he added. “The gap to the rest of the field is the biggest since Mercedes in 2014. It’s a serious gap, everyone needs to work harder to understand how toꦑ close that gap.
“We know we didn’t make the right decisions over the winter. We have gained more performance than you would ordinarily so everything is not lost. We will still be fighting hard, we want to win races this year, we want to be in the championship hunt. But we have to be realistic, focus on ourselves, and get the🌊 fundamentals right for the future.
“We have the take the positive💫s away from this weekend. We qualified ahead of the Ferraris and Astons. The car is capable of that, at the moment.”
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiase🌟d reporti🌠ng.
