2 days Ago By [email protected] (James Bedford)
George Russell took another surprise podium at last weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix to move up a place in the drivers' standings. After inheriting a win earlier in the season, Russell once again benefitted from a crash in front to take a podium which ended his run of poor performances and bad luck of late. However, the weekend started with more misfortune for the driver from Tydd St Giles as his power unit had to be changed between the two Friday practice sessions which impacted upon his preparations for the competitive action.
Despite this, Russell topped the timesheets in the final practice session which suggested he was in for a positive qualifying. Although this seemed not to be the case in the early stages as Mercedes took the decision to send Russell out on the medium tyre, however, once he had suitable tyres the 26-year-old was easily through to the next stage of qualifying. Russell was incredibly quick in the second stage of qualifying as his first lap put him top, however, this pace did not carry through to when it counted as he could only manage fifth fastest in the end.
This led to Russell starting fifth on the grid alongside reigning world champion Max Verstappen with whom the Mercedes driver infamously collided in last year's sprint race in Baku. Perhaps due to the aforementioned incident, Russell left the Dutchman plenty of room going into turn two and as such dropped a place to sixth. After this, the racing died down and Russell began to manage his tyres before the pit stops, however, there was concern that a plastic bag had blown into his airbox which could have spelt an end to his race.
Thankfully, Russell made it to his pit stop which dropped him to 12th on the road, however, he soon regained places due to other drivers changing their tyres and a lovely double overtake on Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly. Russell had made his way back up to sixth but, in the last 10 laps, he began to close in on Verstappen and passed the Dutchman to secure what would be an easy fifth place. However, up ahead, Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz were fighting for the last place on the podium when they collided with each other and then the wall which handed third position to Russell.
This gave Russell his third podium of the season and moved him up to seventh in the drivers' standings - ahead of Red Bull's Perez. Russell said: "It was a really strange race. It was very difficult on the medium tyre in my first stint.
I was more than one second off the ultimate pace and finding it hard to control the rear tyre surface temperatures. "On the hard tyre in my second stint, the car felt brilliant. In the final 20 laps, I was lapping one second quicker than those at the very front.
It is hard to work out exactly why this was and is a little frustrating. "We were fortunate to get onto the podium and I am glad that both Carlos (Sainz) and Checo (Perez) are OK. We were having a relatively quiet run to fifth place after I got past Verstappen, but we will take it.
"It is a good reward for all the efforts of the team after a challenging weekend on the whole." The 2024 Formula One season continues this weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix - a race in which Russell has never scored points..
