Russell reflects on pit exit incident in São Paulo: "You either gain a lot, or you lose a lot, this time it went against us."
After a frustrating race last time out in Mexico City, George Russell aimed for redemption in São Paulo. The Briton narrowly missed out on pole position to compatriot Lando Norris by 0.185s, after a team error meant Russell didn't have time for a final push lap before rain intensified on track.
Russell took another hit, this time, a five-place grid penalty due to Internal Combustion Engine Change meaning he started in seventh. During the opening stint, the Mercedes driver had moved up into fourth before he headed into the pits to change to slick tyres on Lap 16.
But, because of the still slippery conditions and lack of temperature, disaster struck as he lost control of his car and spun on the exit of the pit lane. Isack Hadjar, Liam lawson and Oscar Piastri behind capitalised on the incident and moved ahead of the Briton.
“Yeah, not really too sure what happened,” Russell said reflecting on the incident in the post-race interview. “I went quite high risk because I smelt an opportunity and paid the price.
“It’s in those moments where you either gain a lot, or you lose a lot. This time it went against us.”
"I probably just took too much risk, because I was seeing an opportunity to go for the win at that point, but it happened,"
Russell recovered and finished in eighth, securing the World Constructor's Championship for Mercedes with the result.
"Ironically, because that happened, I then didn’t pit for another set of slick tyres, and it kind of put me back in the same position as I was before the incident. The most important [thing] is we got the championship sealed."
"It’s been a very positive weekend in terms of my performance. I’m probably more happy coming away from the weekend, because the performance was good," he said.
"At this stage, I care more about the performance than I care about the result, because that’s what’s been my weak point.
"The performance yesterday was great, the performance on the soft tyre was really great today, but obviously I did make that mistake. It probably would have been a very different picture if we’d have started P2, but yeah…"
In the closing stages of the race both Mercedes announced over the radio they were struggling with tyre temperature issues hindering their performance. While, Kimi Antonelli originally conceded his position to Russell so the latter could hunt down Hadjar, the issues meant the Briton was unable to overtake the Red Bull driver.
Russell now sits thir din the overall driver standings, 17 points behind Max Verstappen.
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