19/11/2023
NEWS STORY
George Russell was left ruing the mistake which he believes cost him a certain podium in Las Vegas today.
At half-distance he was running fourth, ahead of Max Verstappen, when the world champion made a move at the circuit's infamous Turn 12.
Unaware that the Red Bull driver was there the Briton turned into him and in addition to losing the position incurred damage to his car and a 5s time penalty.
“It was pretty straight forward until the incident with Max,” said the Mercedes driver. “I totally didn't see him in the blind spot, I wasn't expecting the overtake.
“I wasn't even really fighting him," he added, "because we knew that Max wasn't our race. We just had to keep the tyres alive.
“It was a comfortable podium just thrown away once again," he sighed. "This season is really disappointing. Very frustrating.”
Of course, the resultant Safety Car following the clash impacted Charles Leclerc's race also, the Ferrari driver one of the few who didn't take the opportunity to pit.
Despite fears over the damage to his car, Russell insists that it didn't compromise him that much.
“The only piece of damage was the wheel cover, which if anything, probably would have helped the graining by having that extra bit of cooling,” he said. “However, if it wasn't for the Safety Car, we would have continued and would have gone onto the podium. I don't really know what to say really. I'm just really frustrated with today.”
The Briton was one of several drivers to highlight the safety aspect of maintaining the correct temperature in his tyres during the Safety Car period.
“It was really dangerous under the safety car,” he admitted. “The tyres were rock solid and they were sort of colder than you'd experience in the rain really.”
Though Toto Wolff had claimed that "P4 was on" - which it wasn't - the time penalty subsequently dropped the Mercedes driver to eighth.
Check out our Race Day gallery from Las Vegas here.