George Russell admits “a couple of mistakes” cost him and Mercedes the chance to win the Canadian F1 Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver started from pole position and led the early exchanges, but had to rule out several errors and a collision with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, as he ultimately had to settle for third behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
It marked the best result of the season for Mercedes, but Russell couldn’t help but feel the team missed an opportunity in Montreal.
“To be honest, it felt like a missed opportunity,” Russell said during interviews at parc ferme.
“We were very fast at the beginning of the race on the intermediates, and then obviously Lando came very fast, and then we went back to the slicks, made a couple of mistakes, pushing the limits and paying the price for it. he.”
The first of Russell’s big mistakes came on lap 51, when the Briton went wide into the Turn 8 chicane, allowing Norris to pass him again after having overtaken his compatriot on the lap. former.
George Russell (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W15. Formula 1 World Championship, R…
Russell was then forced into the starting zone after an ambitious attempt to overtake Piastri led to contact at the final chicane.
Russell dropped to fourth behind Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, but fought his way back to the podium with a brilliant dive at the same corner in the penultimate laps.
“We had the rhythm,” he explained. “Max was very strong at that point in the race. But then when we put the mediums on at the end, we were very, very fast.
“I think that mistake with Oscar when I tried to overtake him and lost position to Lewis cost us at least second position and maybe fighting with Max later in the race.
“But, you know, we’ll take all the positives from this weekend. First podium, first pole position of the year and really looking forward to moving forward.”
Speaking later at the post-race press conference, Russell added: “I think if you had told us before this weekend, pole position and P3, we might not have believed you, to be honest.
“It was a very complicated race for everyone. You put a millimeter wide and that’s it. I think for me it was too many mistakes at key moments that cost us the chance to fight with these two towards the end of the race.”
