John N
The only bright spark in a gloomy Sunday for Mercedes was George Russell, who grabbed fourth with a brilliant performance in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Teammate Lewis Hamilton was stuck in P13, but Russell said that the result had been unexpected after starting the race in 11th. As neither Mercedes made it to Q3 on either Friday qualifying session or the Sprint race, Russell had failed to set a good grid position.
However, he jumped up to sixth with a fast start and took fifth off Kevin Magnussen. He was moved up to fourth when Charles Leclerc spun out of P4 at the end of the race, but Russell defended Valtteri Bottas by taking his second pit stop one lap earlier than his rival.
Stellar effort from George 👏#ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/1KPD9X2fHj
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 24, 2022
And speaking after the Grand Prix, he opened up about racing in wet-dry conditions – especially with Mercedes not managing to adjust his front wing in the pits when he switched from intermediates onto slicks.
“It was difficult because the first stint was strong, but I had loads of understeer in the car, so I wanted to put a lot of front wing in the car for the dry tire. And then ordinarily, you need to put a lot more front wing in the car for the wet compared to the dry, and unfortunately, we didn’t manage it in the pit stop. I was like, ‘bugger, this is going to be a difficult 40 laps,’ and I just had to manage the tire because I wanted to attack Lando [Norris, who finished P3]; I knew that that front-right would have just disappeared, and I’d finish behind Valtteri. Pleased with the result today – P4 was massively out of reach after qualifying, after the Sprint yesterday – so a good result again,”
Mercedes’s ongoing porpoising issues impacted Russell’s race Sunday, as he explained, “It was still tricky to drive with the bouncing. There was one time I was on the radio, and it took my breath away on the straight with the bumps. I need a nice hot bath to recover!
Russell is fourth in the championship behind Leclerc and the Red Bull drivers – Mercedes sitting third in the constructors’ championship with a 31-point lead over McLaren. “As I’ve said before, it’s a results-based business, and we’re getting the results now,” concluded Russell.
