Russell takes the blame for costly opening lap in Italian GP

George Russell has taken full responsibility for his costly mistake on the opening lap of the Italian Grand Prix that ultimately impacted the remainder of his afternoon.

The Mercedes driver was forced to take to the run-off area after locking up his brakes at Turn 1, right after the start, rejoining the track in close proximity to Max Verstappen.

Russell believes that a minor contact ensued with the Red Bull driver at this moment that resulted in significant damage to his Mercedes’ front wing, forcing him into an early pit stop for a front wing change.

“It was mainly the first lap that cost me. It was a misjudgement on my behalf,” admitted the Briton who concluded his day a disappointing seventh in the running order.

“Oscar came across sharply. He braked earlier than I expected. When I reacted and hit the brakes, the whole car was locking up. I had to avoid him, to not crash. I got some damage, I think, at the next corner with Max.

“Who knows what could’ve been? But I don’t think we could’ve kept up with the McLarens. Charles was fast too.”

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Indeed, Ferrari and the Monegasque in particular had an impressive day on home soil at Monza, with Leclerc pulling off a remarkable one-stop strategy to secure his second win of the season.

Russell expressed admiration for Ferrari's turnaround, noting how unpredictable the current Formula 1 landscape has become.

“An impressive race by them,” he added. “We spoke to the Ferrari guys on Sunday morning at Zandvoort. They were lost and didn’t understand, then went on to finish on the podium then won here!

“Red Bull have lost so much performance. I don’t know what on earth is going on in F1…

“The people with performance, and the people who don’t, nobody understands what’s going on.

“We’ve got to keep working hard, keep improving. McLaren are definitely still in front.”

On Lewis Hamilton’s side of the Mercedes garage, the seven-time world champion run to fifth was relatively uneventful, save for a bout of tyre degradation that limited his pace.

“We were planning to do a one-stop but my tyres were dropping off, just trying to hold onto Carlos [Sainz],” he added.

“Definitely unexpected. But they had an upgrade so it was inevitable that they would be quick compared to us.

“The only positive is that we have good reliability, but everyone around us did too,” he added.

“Ultimately we didn’t have the race pace. I am not sure why. Even if I started further ahead, it would’ve been hard. If I was ahead of the Ferraris they would have come out ahead because they had more pace than us.

“They had an upgrade this weekend and we didn’t. That’s how it goes. There will be a race where we have an upgrade and they don’t, and we’ll be stronger, hopefully.

“It is very, very fine, small margins between all of us. Unfortunately today we didn’t have the pace, and we had more deg. I could have done a one-stop but I would’ve come out in the same place.”

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