{"id":514502,"date":"2025-10-20T13:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/514502\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T13:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:43:10","slug":"george-russell-highlights-moment-that-cost-him-in-austin-as-he-goes-from-singapore-gp-victory-to-distant-p6-finish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/514502\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell highlights moment that cost him in Austin as he goes from Singapore GP victory to distant P6 finish"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell was left to rue fine margins in Qualifying and a tricky opening lap at the United States Grand Prix after crossing the line back in sixth position \u2013 more than half a minute behind winner Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Russell, who triumphed at the previous round in Singapore, started the Austin weekend with a strong P2 finish in the Sprint, having benefitted from the Turn 1 drama that eliminated McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.<\/p>\n

However, that proved to be the highlight for the Mercedes driver, who qualified fourth for the Grand Prix \u2013 missing out on P2 by a matter of hundredths \u2013 and then got overtaken by both Piastri and Lewis Hamilton\u2019s Ferrari at the start.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his afternoon at the wheel, Russell sighed and said: \u201cAt the moment, it\u2019s like a race to Turn 1. Qualifying is so important, there\u2019s no tyre degradation at the moment, so overtaking is very challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a good start, but Max covered Lando… I expected Lando to go to the outside to cover Charles [Leclerc], so I stayed on the inside, but Lando didn\u2019t move across \u2013 he got overtaken and I got blocked in as well and got overtaken by Oscar and Lewis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I came out of Turn 1 in P4, I think I\u2019d have finished in P4. If I\u2019d come out in P3, I think I\u2019d have finished in P3. It\u2019s just how it is at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the developing fight for second in the Teams\u2019 Championship<\/a>, after strong weekends for rivals Red Bull and Ferrari, Russell added: \u201cThe result is a bad one for us today, but as I said, I was 20 milliseconds off the front row on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad I been that 20 milliseconds faster, I probably could have been on the front row, and if I could have held P2, I\u2019m very confident I\u2019d have finished second or third today.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut all of us, we can only go as quick as the driver in front, and I think we all were expecting Lando to fly by Charles who was on the soft tyre, the slower tyre, and he struggled a lot. When there\u2019s no tyre degradation, it\u2019s challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an even more challenging afternoon for rookie team mate Kimi Antonelli, who got tipped into a spin by Williams\u2019 Carlos Sainz \u2013 who subsequently received a five-place grid penalty for Mexico<\/a> \u2013 and could only recover to 13th.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shame, it\u2019s a pity,\u201d Antonelli said of that moment. \u201cI don\u2019t think he was going to make the corner anyway, and I tried to avoid hitting the apex, just to give him a bit more space, but I ended up getting taken out. It\u2019s a shame, but we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

As touched on above, Mercedes are now just seven points clear of Ferrari in the battle for P2 in the championship, with the resurgent Red Bull three points further back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell was left to rue fine margins in Qualifying and a tricky opening lap at the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-514502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115406793046009495","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}