Russell helped to fifth by upgrades and safety car
George Russell maintained his unrivalled streak of top-five finishes so far this campaign by leading team-mate Lewis Hamilton to complete a Mercedes 5-6 aboard the updated W13.
The duo thought the arrival of more efficient front-wing endplates plus upgraded rear and beam wings (see page 33) would not wholly fix the troublesome car, but should aid the team’s medium-term troubleshooting. When both machines were porpoising far less in FP1 and Russell topped FP2, it took the young Brit by surprise.
But late set-up tweaks meant the oscillations returned violently for qualifying, tethering Russell to 12th as Hamilton progressed to sixth, with a 0.376s advantage in Q2.
Russell turned in a 40-lap opening stint on hard tyres and used the virtual safety car to pit for mediums. That permitted him to chase after his stablemate, who was running the inverse strategy.
Hamilton had endured a frustrating Turn 1 when he clipped the inside kerb and allowed Pierre Gasly to pass before being bumped by Fernando Alonso. Down to eighth, he did regain his starting position by the end of the stint and was closing on Valtteri Bottas. After some debate over team radio, Hamilton was not pitted during the safety car to leave him prey to Russell, who emerged directly behind.
Russell needed two bites of the cherry to pass, having run off road at Turn 11 initially and then handed the position back. But he eventually got the job done after the pair had gained a place when Bottas glanced the wall. He wound up nearly 20s behind winner Max Verstappen.
“George did a great job in that first stint on the hard tyre – in hindsight the hard tyre was probably the better race tyre for today,” said Hamilton.
“But George did well to recover from his position and we got fifth and sixth, which is good points for the team. I was a bit of a sitting duck in our move, but George did great, was very fair, and on old tyres there wasn’t much I could do. Even running in our positions, it’s still racing, it just changes your perspective.”