Russell “shocked” by minute-long VSC delay after Sainz-Perez crash · F1 · RaceFans

George Russell was “shocked” by how long race control took to deploy the Virtual Safety Car after the crash on the penultimate lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver was promoted to the final podium position after Carlos Sainz Jnr and Sergio Perez crashed between turns two and three.

The collision occured after Sainz overtook Perez into turn one to take third place. Perez attempted to fight back against the Ferrari on the exit of turn two along the first DRS zone, but the pair made contact on the straight, sending both car into the barrier on the left-hand side.

Double waved yellow flags were timed at 4:33:21pm, soon after the accident occurred. However, the Virtual Safety Car was not deployed until 4:34:38pm – more than a minute after the initial collision. The race finished under VSC conditions, which remained in effect after the chequered flag.

Speaking after the race, Russell said the most difficult part of the race was “driving full gas into a wall of carbon fibre on the penultimate lap.”

“That was pretty crazy,” Russell continued. “The sun was coming down. You couldn’t see anything.

“I was shocked the Safety Car or VSC obviously didn’t come out sooner. The car could have been anywhere. Glad to see everybody was okay. It was a long old race and glad to be on the podium.”

Russell says a podium finish was a welcome reward after a challenging weekend for Mercedes in Baku.

“There was so much hard work this weekend for everybody in the team,” he said. “There was engine changes on my side, engine changes for Lewis – so much going on. Everybody was working so hard

“We had a really bad start to the race, I was dropping off a lot, but on the hard tyre, I think we were one of the quickest out there and that was great, got past Max. So an added bonus to stand on the podium.”

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