Brundle: 'Ironically, Aitken spun in the Williams'

Confluence of Circumstances

Martin Brundle looks back on last Sunday's race in his column for Sky Sports and says the race was bizarre for Russell. "Unfortunately, and ironically back at his main home, Jack Aiken had a spin around the outside of the final corner in his Williams and smacked the barrier thereby scattering his front wing back onto the racing line."

Aitken was driving Russell's car, and his spinning caused a mess on the track, so a safety car was used. And that brings Brundle to the next part that worked to Russell's disadvantage: the short track. "A virtual safety car was deployed but it soon became clear, given the way cars were evenly distributed around the very short track, there weren't sufficient gaps even at slow speeds to put marshals out to clear the debris."

We all know what happened then because the chaos at Mercedes with two cars coming in made it all go away. "The resultant full safety car tempted both Mercedes into the pits for a precautionary stop for fresh tyres given they had such a margin. A clash in radio protocol priorities meant that critical information was missed, and a highly unusual Keystone Cops moment followed from the normally calm and immaculate team."

To make matters worse, Russell then had to deal with a tyre that was deflated and as a result, he didn't make it past ninth place.