Could there have been more for Russell? 'That cost him in this Grand Prix'
George Russell saw his chance of a podium finish in Mexico disappear in the first few corners, after being overtaken by both Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez. According to Jolyon Palmer, there would otherwise have been more in it for the Mercedes driver, who at times set faster lap times than his teammate.
After the exciting qualifying session for the Mexican Grand Prix, expectations for the race were high. In the end, however, Mercedes could do little against Max Verstappen's pace. Palmer thinks there would have been more in it for Russell had the Mercedes driver got through the first lap better. However, he allowed himself to be lapped by Hamilton, after which he was also immediately grazed by Perez.
Russell saw chances disappear early on
"That really cost George Russell in this Grand Prix, because his pace was very similar to Lewis Hamilton, maybe even slightly quicker at times. But stuck behind Checo in the first stint, the gap just extended," Palmer said in his analysis for Formula1.com.
The former Formula 1 driver noted that the difference between Red Bull Racing and Mercedes on the straight was not that big at all. This was evident from the lap times in the first stint, in which Verstappen failed to pull a gap to Hamilton.
That changed after the pitstops, where Red Bull chose the better strategy by changing to mediums. Mercedes put both drivers on hard tyres and thus cut themselves in half when it turned out that the mediums made it effortlessly to the end of the race.
George could have finished second had merc listened to him regards tyre choice! Redbull kept them guessing with brilliant strategy from Hannah again!
Toto wont let russell do that look when he did it last time how lewis act over the radio .toto only wants lewis to look good .they did the same with vb
Yep. That was at Miami, when George specifically asked to have a tyre change and that was the correct strategy and was then able to breeze pass Hami a few laps later. Toto purposely did not want the same thing to happen again. Imagine the amount of moaning we would have heard from the 'constant whinger' on the grid!
Even after being run off the track by his team mate, he could still have been able to fight for P3 or P2 (Max was just too quick for anyone to challenge) if Mercedes had put him on the Med-Soft tyre strategy that George himself wanted and we saw how good that strategy was with Ricciardo.
True. He's always making better calls than the team. They double stacked him against his wishes the other week and he came in of his own accord under a safety car and then Hamilton complained the team didn't do the same for him.
Yep. Faster but was run off the road by arrogant Hamilton who thinks teammates only exist to further his career.
