Russell left to rue 'what could have been' in Spa

For George Russell, today's Belgian Grand Prix was a textbook case of what might have been after he missed out on a podium finish but nonetheless continued his impressive record of strong finishes in 2022.

Russell started the Belgian Grand Prix from fifth place despite a dismal time for Mercedes in qualifying, thanks to grid penalties for the likes of Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.

Warmer temperatures for the race revived Mercedes' fortunes. When the lights went out, Russell actually got ahead of Sergio Perez who had started the race from the front row.

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But a collision between Russell's team mate Lewis Hamilton and Alpine's Fernando Alonso on the first lap gave Perez the chance to snatch second place back before the safety car was scrambled for Valtteri Bottas' retirement.

With the Red Bulls proving too hot for anyone to handle this weekend, Russell was left fighting with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz for the remaining podium positions.

Despite a late charge on fresher tyres than the Spaniard, Russell was unable to catch his rival and had to accept fourth place at the finish line - much to his annoyance.

“A little bit of mixed feelings right now," he said after the finish. "Had you told me last night that I would be two seconds off the podium on merit on pure pace, I would have probably said, 'Yeah that’s a good recovery'.

"But when I was closing in [on Sainz] a second a lap, I thought: 'Here we go, we are in for a really good shot [at the podium] here,'" he continued. "And then I just had two really scrappy laps and got the tyres out of the window,

"Unfortunately at the moment tyres are the only thing we ever seem to talk about," he noted. "When they are in that sweet spot the car is transformed but as soon as I lost it, I knew that it was probably game over.

“What could have been, who knows? It’s fine margins in Formula 1. You’ve got to be pushing those limits, and that slight mistake probably cost me the podium.

"But nevertheless, P4 - two seconds off the podium - not too bad," he confirmed.

While everyone agreed that Red Bull were on an entirely different planet of performance this week, Russell was taking satisfaction at how Mercedes had compared favourably with the Ferrari cars.

“I need to look into it but I think definitely today our race pace was probably better than the Ferraris," he said. "Carlos started on pole and was leading the first stint and we closed on him both times.

"So yeah, at worst we were equal with Ferrari today, but as we know it's swings and roundabouts. But what is clear is that Max is kind of cruising away at the moment.”

"George drove good stints through the race and had better pace than Carlos," confirmed Mercedes's chief race engineer Andrew Shovlin. "He'd just taken a bit too much out of the tyres in the final stint to make a pass.

"We'd hoped to move forward here with our updates and whilst it seems that Ferrari are closer to us on race pace, Red Bull are clearly not."

Russell was also left feeling optimistic by how once again Mercedes had performed significantly better in race trim than they had in the preceding disappointing practice and qualifying sessions.

"Whenever we’ve had bad qualifying this year - other than Silverstone, for me - we’ve kind of made those places up in the first two or three laps,” he noted.

"Even though qualifying down in P6, seven, eight, it probably hasn’t compromised us that much when you look at the race picture and how things panned out.

“But for sure you want to have a slightly better morale on a Saturday night," he admitted, saying he preferred the feeling in Hungary (when he claimed pole) to last night in Spa which was described as a 'kick in the teeth' for the team.

"When I compare Saturday night in Hungary compared to Saturday night last night it is definitely quite a different feeling ahead of the race," he agreed.

Russell has been in the top five in every race that he's finished in 2022, with a single DNF in the British Grand Prix after he was caught up in a series of first corner collisions in the wake of Zhou Guanyu's spectacular accident.

It means that he's amassed 170 points so far this season, putting him in fifth place and 24 points ahead of his team mate in the standings with eight races remaining.

However today's result means that he's been overtaken by Carlos Sainz, with just one point separating the pair head to next week's race in Zandvoort.

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