George Russell suffered a bitter blow when Mercedes retired his car from the British Grand Prix due to a water leak, but the Briton still rejoiced in the fact that his team is back in the running for race wins in F1.
Russell, who had qualified on pole with teammate Lewis Hamilton alongside him on the front row, led the opening 19 laps of F1’s showcase event at Silverstone before the pair were overhauled by McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri when light rain set in.
As the race unfolded, Russell settled into fourth behind Norris, Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
But on lap 33 of 52, the Mercedes charger was called in by his team and warned that it had to retire his car due to water system issue on his W15 car.
It was obviously a devastating setback for the Austrian Grand Prix winner who hadn’t yet had his final say in the closely contested race.
“I’m absolutely gutted,” Russell admitted, quoted by Motorsport Week. “About 10 laps before I had to retire, I could see temperature alarms on my steering wheel.
“We had a water system issue we were battling and unfortunately, it won out.”
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But Russell made the best of the painful situation, highlighting Mercedes’ performance of late, its dominance in qualifying at Silverstone and Hamilton’s banner win, all of which point to a genuine resurgence of the Silver Arrows squad.
“I mean it’s incredible,” Russell said. “We had the car in normal driving circumstances to be 1-2. “We’re clearly back and I think we’ll be fighting for race wins more often now.
“Within myself and the car I’m feeling good but obviously this is a real blow, retiring from any race let alone your home Grand Prix when you had the car to win but we’ll have another go.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff also underscored the legitimacy of his team’s outperformance at Silverstone.
“Last week’s win was fortuitous,” commented the Austrian. “[Today], we were quick in almost all conditions.
“We were running first and second for a long time and, although the McLarens were quick when the rain fell, we were able to get back ahead of them.
“It is a win on merit, and it shows the grit of this team.”
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