Russell couldn't overtake McLarens: 'I couldn't believe that'

After the safety car, the McLarens seemed to be in a tricky situation. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were driving on hard tyres, while all the drivers around them were on softer (and thus faster) tyres. However, both McLaren drivers managed to hold their positions, which meant Norris finished second and Piastri fourth.

Russell finds McLaren speed impressive

McLaren has brought a host of upgrades to the MCL60 over the past two races and at Silverstone these came off immensely well: McLaren was the second team, behind Red Bull Racing, to score its first podium of the season. Russell tells GPblog and others that McLaren is now ahead of Mercedes in terms of speed.

"Those McLarens, really impressive to see how fast they were. I was very impressed with Piastri's driving and what he's been doing this season. I felt bad that he lost out on the podium. Because a Lando and he deserved to be standing there. Our pace was probably better than we expected compared to Red Bull, Aston and Ferrari, but McLaren clearly turned it up at two races now, two very different circuits, they've definitely been a small step ahead of us."

Russell thought to take podium at Silverstone

When the safety car went in, the Mercedes driver had expected to easily make the podium, but nothing could be further from the truth. "I thought it was going to be clear-cut, you know, Lewis and I, P2, P3 and see you later. You know, I couldn't believe how well they turned the tyres on and got it going. Perhaps if they put the soft on with their car, it may not have worked the same way as it worked on ours. And equally, if we had the hards on, it probably wouldn't work the same way as it did on their car," Russell said after the race.