WIN THAT GOT AWAY
Pit crew cost Russell dear... but a star is born
NOT since lewis Hamilton arrived on the world stage has a British driver announced his talent in such exciting fashion as luckless george Russell last night.
When the sakhir grand Prix was over, the norfolk-born stripling, who won the race over and over again only ultimately to be denied victory by a pit- stop bungle and then a puncture, lay on the floor close to tears of both rapture and agony.
For so much of the 87 laps, he had been in control, displaying a rare composure on his Mercedes debut that echoed Hamilton’s early forays in 2007 when he, like Master george, was just 22.
This comparison is relevant because it was only as a result of Hamilton, 34, going down with Covid at the beginning of the week that Russell was drafted in from Williams to take his seat.
It would clearly be insulting to Hamilton to draw any deeper parallels, for the older man has won 95 races and seven title across 14 seasons, and Russell has done practically nothing yet.
But, as an early calling card, this performance in Bahrain held dazzling promise. We glimpsed the future. Russell, starting second, roared into the lead off the start — even though the night before he was so new to the car that he had to ask how to switch it off.
He then zipped off serenely, maturely, positively, when an early safety car withdrew.
He opened up a neat lead on his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas either side of their first stops. Eight seconds at one point. ‘I thought it was too good to be true,’ he said afterwards.
now events beyond his control unravelled. a second safety car came out and Mercedes brought him to be reshod. The problem was that his pit crew did not hear the call and it was Bottas’s side of the garage who greeted the race leader. They put the Finn’s tyres on Russell’s car, in contravention of the rules, causing Mercedes to be fined £18,000. Russell was called in again to put right the mistake.
The ‘colossal f***-up’, as team principal Wolff called it, plunged him to fifth, a place behind Bottas. Russell now pulled off the move of the race, threading himself past Bottas with accuracy and daring. In two blistering laps he moved past Racing Point’s lance stroll and the Renault of Esteban Ocon, a knife through butter. This put the young thruster on the tail of sergio Perez, only for his left-rear tyre to go pop. agony.
The upshot was a win at the 190th attempt for Perez, a talented and tenacious racer who fought back from last place after being clipped in a reckless move by Ferrari’s Charles leclerc that ended Max Verstappen’s participation. Cue sighs in the Red Bull garage. Ocon came second and lance stroll, in the other Racing Point, third.
Russell finished ninth, as a consequence of his four stops, a place behind Bottas. But there was a chasm of difference between the pair: Bottas was slow, timid, uncertain. He faltered at every important moment, woefully so.
Yet Bottas is, as it stands, due to be kept on next season as Hamilton’s team-mate. How much more thrilling it would be to see Russell, a member of Mercedes’ young driver programme, partner Hamilton in a pretender-and-king rivalry.
Formula One bosses should lobby for it. The Queen should decree it.
When the race was over and Russell’s emotions had been pulled this way and that, he came on to the radio: ‘ guys, I don’t know what to say. That was taken away from us twice. Honestly, it’s been a pleasure and I’ve loved it. I’m absolutely gutted. But we’ll get this opportunity again. I hope we get this opportunity again. Thank you.’
Well, his next chance may come in the season’s closing round in abu dhabi next week if Hamilton does not recover in time or Covid travel restrictions deny him access.
Wolff said: ‘ george drove monumentally. It is not going to be his last attempt to win a race. It is just the beginning of a fairytale that didn’t work out today. But I would say that a new star is born.’