George Russell topped a wet first practice hour at the Hungarian Grand Prix after Sergio Perez spun into the barriers just three minutes into the session.
Perez was two laps into his run plan when he dipped his left wheels onto the grass getting on the brakes at Turn 5, sending him sliding out of control towards the outside barrier on exit. His upgraded Red Bull Racing car crunched its left-front corner into the wall, forcing a red flag to retrieve it from the circuit.
“I cannot believe this,” the distraught Mexican said over team radio, acknowledging his rookie error.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell topped a slippery first practice session at the Miami Grand Prix ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton.
The Mercedes duo left their soft-tire runs until the final two minutes of the session, when the circuit was at its cleanest, with Russell setting the pace at 1m30.125s to pip Hamilton by 0.212s.
It was a strong return for Russell, who spent most of the first 30 minutes having his steering rack changed after rejecting an experimental new part following just two opening laps in the car.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell says Max Verstappen should have known the risks associated with trying to hold position around the outside of a corner after the two drivers made contact on the first lap of the Azerbaijan sprint.
Verstappen started third alongside Russell, whose third place grid spot gave him the inside line for the first three corners, and the Briton made the most of it by claiming the apex of all three and forcing the Dutchman to try to cling on with a wider line to hold position.
Both got through the first corner cleanly, but Russell’s front-right wheel tagged the left side of Verstappen’s car as they exited Turn 2, tearing a hole in the RB19’s sidepod and causing other minor damage.
Continue reading on RACERIt’s sometimes the case in Formula 1 that the most interesting races produce the most miserable drivers — and there was a fair bit of misery on track as the field took the chequered flag at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix
Max Verstappen was committing a minor mutiny by ignoring team orders, sending Red Bull Racing into meltdown and freeing Sergio Perez to say a bit more of what he really thinks of being teammates with the Dutchman.
Charles Leclerc was slamming his team for not allowing him past Carlos Sainz for a spot on the podium to bolster his chances of finishing runner-up in the championship.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSGeorge Russell claimed the first Grand Prix win of his Formula 1 career with a superbly controlled drive to victory at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The Briton aced his getaway from pole and mastered two safety car restarts to grind out the win ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton, securing Mercedes’s first win of the year and first one-two finish since 2020.
“This is just the beginning,” he radioed his team. “I’m so proud of all of you. I knew we could do this.”
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell is a winner at last in Formula 1, although the hard work is still to come on Sunday.
Russell followed Max Verstappen past pole-getter Kevin Magnussen early in the sprint to set up a private duel for first place in the 100-kilometre dash, and after biding his time, he began his siege on the lead.
Twice he tried around Verstappen’s outside at the first turn but was rebuffed.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSGeorge Russell has won his first Formula 1 race after a thrilling duel with Max Verstappen for victory in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix sprint.
Russell started third behind pole-getter Kevin Magnussen and Verstappen in second, but the Dutchman was the only driver among the frontrunners to start on the medium tire, giving him a grip disadvantage off the line.
The Briton attempted to take second from him immediately at the start, and again through the first lap, but was constantly rebuffed. By the start of the second lap, Verstappen’s yellow tires were up to temperature and he set his sights forward to the lead.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell led a Mercedes one-two in final practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix after Max Verstappen struggled to string together a lap.
Russell set the benchmark early with a 1m18.399s on softs, the most used tire of the hour, and teammate Hamilton crossed the line shortly afterwards just 0.114s adrift.
The younger Briton had the edge in the first and particularly the last sectors, while Hamilton clawed back around half the difference in the middle split. It translated to a comfortable lead for the German marque over the field, the W13 appearing at home in the low-grip conditions of the still slippery, high-altitude circuit.
Continue reading on RACERCharles Leclerc crashed out of the 90-minute Pirelli tire test topped by George Russell at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Leclerc’s car spun off the track through Turn 8 and rear-ended the wall, with his left-rear corner suffering the worst of the damage. The Monegasque was unhurt, blaming a lack of grip on the experimental tires, as well as the dusty track, for the mistake.
The time it took to collect his wrecked car and repair the barriers cost teams and Pirelli almost 20 minutes in the middle of the session. By the time Leclerc found the barrier, Russell had already topped the session as one of five drivers granted 45 minutes of free practice during the tire test after handing their cars to rookie and reserve drivers in FP1.
Continue reading on RACERMercedes teammates George Russell and Lewis Hamilton dominated wet second practice at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Russell and Hamilton were among the most prolific lap-setters in what was otherwise — like the first practice earlier in the day –a low-mileage session in conditions not expected to be replicated on Saturday or Sunday. They set 45 laps between them, around two-thirds the number that would be expected to be set in second practice around Suzuka.
The number is particularly low considering the session was extended by 30 minutes to allow for time to test Pirelli’s 2023-spec tires. However, as only the dry compounds were set to be sampled, the test was cancelled, albeit without shortening the track program.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell topped first practice for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort after Max Verstappen withdrew from the session with gearbox problems.
Verstappen was an early scratching from the hour-long session when his car ground to a halt at Turn 4. His Red Bull team then told him to park it as a precaution to protect the transmission, disappointing his throngs of home fans piled into the grandstands and causing a nine-minute red flag.
Red Bull said the problem wasn’t thought to be terminal, meaning the Dutchman will likely be back on track in FP2 later today.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell scored the first pole position of his career by charging to the top spot in the final seconds of qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, after points leader Max Verstappen was forced to withdraw from Q3 with engine problems.
Mercedes had looked out of sorts all weekend, with poor balance on Friday and chronic tire temperature issue during wet Saturday practice, but the W13 switched it on in time for dry qualifying.
Russell wielded the machine to perfection. His first lap split the fancied Ferrari drivers for a provisional front row, but a sublime second lap shaved 0.6s off his personal best to pip Carlos Sainz to top spot by 0.044s, all without having set a single purple sector.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell has doubled down on his calls for Formula 1 to address the “safety limitation” in its new-design 2022 cars, declaring it’s only a matter of time before the chassis bouncing phenomenon, also known as porpoising, results in a significant crash.
Russell spoke out on Friday against the physical toll the bouncing was taking on drivers in Baku, where the long front straight is triggering the phenomenon for virtually all teams to varying extents, more severely than at any circuit this season so far.
Mercedes is arguably the worst affected, with the car intermittently scraping along the ground down the straight as well as moving up and down on its suspension. But after qualifying sixth and 1.3s off the pace on Saturday, Russell said the experience of the car on the limit was so extreme that a crash owing to the bouncing was inevitable.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell is calling for talks with Formula 1 to find a way to reduce the propensity for porpoising with the current generation of cars after a painful afternoon at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Mercedes in particular has struggled with aerodynamic bouncing for most of the year, and although upgrades brought to the Spanish Grand Prix facilitated a strong weekend for the reigning constructors’ champion in Barcelona, the porpoising has returned with a vengeance in Baku.
The problem is particularly bad in Azerbaijan, where the cars are flat out for more than 1.3 miles down the front straight, the longest single blast in the sport. The faster the cars go, the more energized the ground-effect floor becomes, sucking the cars closer to the ground until they bottom out, which causes the bouncing.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell has taken top spot from Charles Leclerc in a reversal of form in Friday’s second practice for the Miami Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver put his updated car to good advantage to pip the Ferrari by 0.106s and flip the order from first practice.
The W13 looks improved compared to the difficult machine of the first four rounds, and though the bouncing was sometimes still evident at the end of the Miami International Autodrome’s long straights, it seemed less frequent than in previous races.
Continue reading on RACERGeorge Russell has topped a dry final practice at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix ahead of the first sprint race of the season.
The Briton put his Mercedes 0.081s ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completing the top three, 0.283s adrift.
It was the first dry session of the grand prix weekend after both practice and qualifying on Friday were heavily affected by rain, but despite the change in climatic conditions, parc fermé rules remained from Friday night according to sprint weekend rules.
Continue reading on RACERThe Belgian Grand Prix will be remembered as the shortest race in F1 history, declared after only two laps in torrential rain, but for George Russell it was the first podium finish of what is sure to be many more.
George Russell remembers his 2019 F1® debut for Williams in Australia, reflects on the lessons learned from his memorable stand-in appearance at Mercedes, talks about his rivalries with peers like Lando Norris and reveals why he wanted a director role in the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association alongside Sebastian Vettel.