Yahoo Autos Russell rues ‘missed opportunity’ in Montreal despite Mercedes performance
George Russell believes he made too many mistakes during the Canadian Grand Prix and cost himself a chance of victory in Montreal.
Mercedes backed up recent progress with an impressive performance during a weather-affected weekend, with Russell securing pole position and then finishng third ahead of Lewis Hamilton to secure the team’s first podium of the season. However, having led the first part of the race in wet conditions and then chasing down Lando Norris and race winner Max Verstappen late on, he says he can’t be fully satisfied with his result.
“I think if you told us ahead of this weekend, pole position and P3, we may not have believed you, to be honest,” Russell said. “But it was such a tricky race out there for everybody. You go a millimeter wide and you’re off. I think for me, it was just one too many mistakes at key moments that cost us a shot of fighting with these two towards the end of the race.
“It felt like a missed opportunity, to be honest. 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.
“But nevertheless, first podium of the year, we truly had a really fast car this weekend, and to be back in the mix fighting for victory was really fun. That’s what Formula 1 is about, and that’s why we go racing.”
Russell had climbed ahead of Norris into second place before sliding wide at Turn 8 and giving the position back with 20 laps remaining, and he believes that was one of two mistakes that ultimately proved costly.
“I think [Verstappen was catchable] I mean, we had the pace,” he said. “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 [Piastri] 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.”
