15/09/2024
NEWS STORY
George Russell finished third and Lewis Hamilton ninth in today's Azerbaijan Grand Prix. George started from P5 on the Medium tyre but suffered with rear tyre temperatures throughout his first stint.
It was a similar story for Lewis who, having taken a new power unit ahead of the race, started from the pit lane on the yellow-walled compound. Both ditched the Medium tyre at the end of lap 13, swapping to the Hard compound tyre and went to the end of the race. A gentle introduction in the opening laps paid dividends in the closing stages with George amongst the fastest runners and closing on the top-four. As that group concertinaed together, contact between Sainz and Perez ended with both in the wall and promoted George to P3.
Lewis worked hard to battle his way through the pack, but his progress came to a halt when he reached the Williams of Franco Colapinto. However, a puncture for the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg plus the Sainz/Perez incident elevated him to P9 and two hard-earned points at the flag.
We now head to Singapore where the team will celebrate PETRONAS' 50th anniversary at what has become something of a home race for our Title and Technical Partner.
George Russell: It was a really strange race today. It was very difficult on the Medium tyre in my first stint. I was over one second off the ultimate pace and finding it hard to control the rear tyre surface temperatures. On the Hard tyre in my second stint, the car felt brilliant. In the final 20 laps, I was lapping one second quicker than those at the very front. It is hard to work out exactly why this was and is a little frustrating.
We were fortunate to get onto the podium and I am glad that both Carlos (Sainz) and Checo (Perez) are OK. We were having a relatively quiet run to P5 after I got past Verstappen, but we will take it. It is a good reward for all the efforts of the team after a challenging weekend on the whole.
Lewis Hamilton: Today was a difficult race. We had a good day on Friday, but the rest of the weekend was tough. We made some changes heading into Saturday that didn't work out, but we had to live with them. We also knew it would be challenging to overtake today. Despite the long straight, it is hard to follow through the second sector. Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman, who I was racing for a lot of the afternoon, did such a great job. It is great to see the youngsters like them coming through and doing so well. For their first and second races, it was very impressive.
Despite how tough my own race was, the positives are that George had a decent race and was able to score some good points for the team. We've also got lots of data to work through ahead of Singapore. We've got some upgrades coming before the end of the year so hopefully we can make a step closer to those at the front soon.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: We will take the positive from today that we were able to get one car on the podium. We saw that it was getting feisty at the front and that ultimately ended with Sainz and Perez in the wall. Inheriting a podium and finishing third is better than we expected but we are not fooling ourselves that, on pace today, we were P5.
We will analyse the race and weekend as a whole. The second half of our Grand Prix on the Hard tyre was encouraging. George was able to keep the temperatures under control and, having driven within himself early in the stint, was able to deliver strong pace in the closing stages. It was more difficult for Lewis with the traffic he faced but at moments, he showed good speed. We now head to Singapore, and it is another difficult circuit to know how everyone will perform. We will dig through the data from this weekend, aim to improve the car balance and have a stronger weekend there.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: It was nice to get a car on the podium, but we aren't fooling ourselves; this weekend hasn't been good enough and we need to improve. The first stint for both drivers was weak. We couldn't stop the rear tyres from overheating, and, at one point, it was looking like we were in for a very difficult afternoon.
The Hard tyre suited us much better. George had clean air to work out how to get the best out of the tyres and maintain them in a good window. That served him well later in the race. We'd lost too much time early on in the race to stick with the leaders, but it was good to get the pass on Verstappen done and that proved crucial for the podium.
Lewis' race was difficult as he kept bumping into DRS trains and just couldn't make it through them. The closer he got to the cars ahead the more tyre overheating he suffered with. Regardless, we were not strong enough here to get a podium on merit and that's what we need to put our efforts into resolving. We've got a different challenge in Singapore next week but are looking forward to getting back on track.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Baku here.