2. A season of super-subs sees Russell soar at Sakhir
We started our countdown of Top Moments of 2020 talking about coronavirus, and it's inevitable that the subject should come up again before we're done. After the delay to the start of the season, Formula 1 had managed to successfully complete three races when the very thing that everyone had been dreading finally happened: one of the drivers tested positive for COVID-19. In this case it was Racing Point's Sergio Perez, and it meant he would miss both of the doubleheader races at Silverstone. The team scrambled to find a replacement in time for first practice for the British GP and turned to former Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg, who had previously spent three seasons with the squad in its former incarnation as Force India.
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Considering he was being parachuted into the team at the last minute with no previous experience of the RP20, Hulkenberg acquitted himself well in qualifying but then wasn't able to start the race after the team found a technical issue which could not be fixed in time. But it was the following week when the Hulk showed his true class, qualifying in third place and delivering seventh place in the race itself finishing just behind team mate Lance Stroll. Two months later Hulkenberg was back, this time in Stroll's car after the Canadian himself fell ill in the build-up to the Eifel Grand Prix. It was such short notice that Hulkenberg had to jump in his car at home and race down the autobahn arriving just in time for qualifying. Surely that made him the super-sub for the season?
But wait! Here's George Russell. At least he had several days notice about Lewis Hamilton being forced to miss the Sakhir Grand Prix after becoming the third driver this year to return a positive COVID-19 test. However it took some time for Mercedes to negotiate Russell's release from Williams before he was confirmed as Hamilton's stand-in leaving Jack Aitken sitting in for him in the FW43, while there was another substitute driver at Haas with Pietro Fittipaldi taking over from the injured Romain Grosjean.
Could the Briton finally show what he could do in a top car after 36 pointless outings for backmarkers Williams? It would have been understandable if he had taken his time to adjust, but instead Russell topped both of Friday's practice sessions and then missed out on beating Valtteri Bottas to pole position by a mere 0.026s. The fairy tale continued on Sunday when he beat Bottas into the first corner and assumed command of the race. What happened after that wasn't his fault with a disastrous tyre mix-up by the team in pit lane, and even then he might have pulled off a win if not for a late puncture dropping him to ninth place. He had finally won his first F1 points, but it was bittersweet when it should have been a maiden victory. While driver of the day went to Sergio Perez, there was no question that a new F1 superstar had been born - and his name is George Russell.
