A late fight for the Canadian Grand Prix podium saw George Russell get the better of team-mate Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes recorded their best result of the F1 season so far
George Russell apologised for an “ugly race” at the Canadian Grand Prix despite securing a first podium of the year for Mercedes.
Russell finished third, one place ahead of Lewis Hamilton, as the Silver Arrows enjoyed their best result of the season in Montreal. The younger Briton secured the podium spot late on, overtaking Hamilton just a few laps after losing the place to the seven-time Formula 1 champion.
But all Russell could think about in the immediate aftermath was what might have been. The 26-year-old started the race on pole and led for the first 20 laps. Even after losing the lead, he remained in contention for the victory for most of the Grand Prix.
He had too many scruffy moments, however, which proved costly. While battling with Lando Norris, he was forced to run across a kerb at the final chicane which led to him temporarily losing that podium place to Hamilton before winning it back.
Lewis Hamilton berates himself for “really poor performance” in honest interview
But Russell also had time to make wheel-to-wheel contact with the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri which forced him into the run off area at the same part of the track. He went on to secure his first podium since last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, though.
After taking the chequered flag, Russell took to the radio to apologise to his team for making too many mistakes on track. He said: “Ugly race on my behalf. Sorry for that. I’m very sorry for that.”
He still cut a frustrated figure after climbing out of his Mercedes and picking up a microphone for his parc ferme interview. “It felt like a missed opportunity, to be honest,” said the rueful Briton, who clearly felt the win was there for the taking.
Russell continued: “We were really quick at the beginning of the race on the inters, and then obviously Lando came through really fast, and then we jumped back onto the slicks, made a couple of mistakes out there, just pushing the limits and paid the price for it.
“We had the pace. Max was very strong at that point of the race. But then when we put the mediums on at the end, we were really, really fast. I think that mistake with Oscar when I tried overtaking him and I lost the position to Lewis cost us at least P2 and maybe going to fight with Max later in the race. But we’ll take all the positives from this weekend. First podium, first pole position of the year and excited moving forward.”
Despite that disappointment, though, team principal Toto Wolff was satisfied with the progress on show. He said: “We certainly could have taken one or two more positions and then maybe have fought for victory. It is a little bittersweet therefore but ultimately, if you had said to us before the weekend that we would be third and fourth, then we would have taken it.”
