George Russell believes he missed out on at least a second-place finish in the Canadian GP because of a mistake he made while battling McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in the closing stages of the race.
From pole position, Russell held his own for 20 laps in the wet and tricky conditions before he was overhauled by both Lando Norris and future race winner Max Verstappen.
The Briton recouped second after the first safety car but then fell back into the clutches of Piastri and Lewis Hamilton, with the former gaining the upper hand during the race’s second neutralization.
As an incisive Russell fought back, a moment with Piastri at the final chicane just ten laps from the checkered flag forced the Mercedes driver to take to the run-off area, which killed his momentum and allowed Hamilton to overtake his teammate.
But Russell pressed on and eventually managed to overhaul both drivers in the final laps of the race to seal his spot on the podium.
“It felt like a missed opportunity to be honest,” said Russell as he summed up his afternoon at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
“We were really quick at the beginning of the race on the inters, and then obviously Lando came through really fast. So then we jumped back onto the slicks, made a couple of mistakes out there, just pushing the limits.”
Russell clearly rued his near clash with Piastri as he believed that it had caused him to leave at least a runner-up spot on the table.
“We had the pace,” he said. “Max was very strong at that point in the race. But then when we put the mediums on at the end, we were really, really fast.
“I think that mistake with Oscar, when I tried overtaking him and I lost the position to Lewis, cost us at least P2 and maybe we could have fought with Max late in the race.
“But we’ll take all the positives from this weekend. First podium, first pole position of the year and exciting moving forward.”
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