George Russell admitted that he was surprised to finish on the top step of the podium at the Singapore Grand Prix, claiming - just like he did after qualifying - that his car's competitiveness was unexpected.
The British driver placed his W16 on pole position after setting a stunning pace during Saturday's qualifying session, beating Max Verstappen's Red Bull by almost two tenths of a second.
Russell remained calm and composed at the start of the Grand Prix, maintaining P1 on the opening lap and creating a healthy gap of almost five seconds to the rest of the field by the end of lap 10.
The 27-year-old's dominance faded somewhat after he pitted for hard tyres on lap 26, but he had opened up enough of a lead to cross the line in first by 5.430 seconds. Verstappen and the McLaren of Lando Norris rounded out the podium.
Russell was definitely helped by a slow Verstappen holding up a faster Norris for the entire Grand Prix, but the Mercedes driver nevertheless put in consistently good lap times to lead the Singapore Grand Prix from lights to flag.
Speaking after the 62-lap event, Russell admitted that his latest win felt especially good after his heart-breaking crash in the final few laps on the brink of victory at the same circuit two years ago.
He said: "It feels amazing, especially after what happened a couple of years ago. That was a bit of a missed opportunity, but we more than made up for it today.
"Just so grateful for the team. They did an amazing job this weekend. We don’t really know where this performance came from, but really, really happy," stated Russell.
The British driver was just as dumbfounded as many of us with the sudden jump up the pecking order from Mercedes, especially considering just how much he was struggling during the practice sessions on Friday.
He continued: "If I was to make a list of all the races I thought we could win at this year, this would probably be right at the bottom.
"We need to sit down on Monday and Tuesday to sort of understand why the performance was so good. I hope we can carry this through to the rest of the season," added the Mercedes driver.
However, Russell realistically doesn't expect to be the fastest on track at the United States Grand Prix in a fortnight's time.
He concluded: "But I think realistically, Lando looked incredibly fast. He was within a second of Max the whole race and around this circuit, that's not easy.
"We’ll take the performance for today and celebrate it. I won't think too much about Austin yet."
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