Mercedes has “a lot of things to debrief”, claims Russell

Despite promising pace in the early stages of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, George Russell was left frustrated as he failed to finish the tricky race on the podium.

Having jumped into the lead at the start, George Russell led the opening stages of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix before getting unlucky with a red flag interruption. The Briton made his pit stop before the red flag which meant that he found himself down in P5 when the race was restarted.

Although he could overtake Lando Norris at the restart, he spent the closing stint of the 69-lap race behind the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, crossing the finish line in P4.

A seemingly disheartened Russell said after the challenging race: “That was an intense race and there’s lots for us to debrief and learn from. I got a good start and I was surprised at the pace in the opening stint – we didn’t have the right tyre pressures on the set, and we were expecting them to drop off, so that was encouraging.

“When the VSC came with the heavy rain, I was in favour of staying out as I thought there would be a red flag – it was like driving a point at points, with the aquaplaning on the straights. I pitted and so did Lando, and we ended up P4 and P6 at the finish, while the cars that stayed out finished ahead.

“But it’s easy to make the call after the race, and we’re in this together, trying to make the best calls with the information we have available. I think we would have taken P4 at the start of the weekend; but of course, after qualifying P2 and running in the lead for the first half of the race, it’s hard not to feel some regret for the opportunity we missed today.”

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton endured a very difficult opening stint, having complained about bouncing. The Briton ran wide at Juncao twice before enjoying a more successful second stint after the restart to end up tenth.

The seven-time world champion commented: “That was such a tough race for us today – and probably one of the most difficult race weekends of the season, to be honest.

“The car has been very difficult to drive all weekend, and it didn’t hook up at any point during the race either. But even with the results today, it’s hard to come away upset because the fans here are incredible.

“It was such an unusual day with the early qualifying session, and they were queuing up from 04:00 this morning – and you just cannot beat that commitment and positivity, no matter what the result on track.”

Commenting on his emotional moment with Ayrton Senna’s McLaren MP4/5B, the Briton said: “It was so emotional to drive Senna’s car in front of them all this morning, and to connect with the five-year-old child inside of me. That was a very special moment for me, and I’m very grateful we could make it happen today in spite of the conditions.”