George Russell was thankful of Lewis Hamilton letting him by in F1 Miami GP as the two felt great with their comeback drives.
Being on a different strategy, Mercedes had to issue team orders to Hamilton to let Russell by at one point in Miami GP. The former on the radio noted that he can overtake him, but eventually gave a good line for the latter to pass cleanly.
That normal pass allowed Russell to hurry up and clear Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to end up fourth which didn’t look possible for him at the start of the grand prix. He enjoyed the pass on the Spaniard which he reckons was made possible by Hamilton’s gesture.
The one with Carlos was really quite enjoyable because that was let’s say, the fairest, good move,” said Russell. “I needed quite a lot of commitment because this track’s so dirty offline. I wasn’t too sure how much grip I would have had and if I could make it stick. Thanks to Lewis for letting me by in those situations and allowing me to get on with my race. Obviously, he was in a different position.
“We’ve got a really good relationship at the moment, and we only want the best for the team and we’re pushing towards that,” summed up Russell, as Hamilton was happy to give way as his teammate was on a different strategy and he didn’t wish to hold him up.
“George, he started sixth so we were in bit of a different race and of course I’m a team player, I want to get the team the maximum points so I let him by,” said Hamilton to media. It was a fine run from Russell to be fourth after starting in sixth in a grand prix where he didn’t look too great since FP1.
“A really satisfying race for us, I think, finished P4 on merit to jump ahead of the Ferraris was really satisfying and couldn’t have done anymore,” continued Russell. “It was a more normal day for us after the challenges in qualifying, but of course, still work to do to at least jump ahead of Aston Martin and close the gap to Red Bull.
“There’s a fair assessment. I think it’s probably because the car is quite challenging to drive at the moment. We’ve got a lot to improve. As I said, we know where we are at the moment, Imola is a new weekend, we’ll have some new bits on the car. Hopefully that’s positive. It’s not going to change the world for us in the short term but hopefully it’s a step in the right direction,” summed up Russell.
What was a bit of a straightforward for Russell starting inside the Top 10, Hamilton had to work his way up from 13th which included an opening lap sandwich moment which didn’t allow him to gain places off the line. He was stuck where he started and gradually had to make his way up after few passes which he enjoyed.
“It’s been a good day, much better than qualifying,” said Hamilton. “It was a difficult day in qualifying, to be qualified 13th is not great obviously. It made the whole race much, much harder for us. The first 20 laps were a little bit difficult because we were in a DRS train, but after that I was able to then start chipping away and I really enjoyed battling with all the different cars and it was great at the end to be able to catch the Alpine and overtake a Ferrari, for example.
“The sprint race in the last [round] for example, I was going backwards and it’s just demoralising when you’re going backwards because it’s really tough. So it was great to have pace, be seeing the cars up ahead, seeing the progress and knowing that we were going to be battling with people, and had a couple of great overtakes as well – that’s what I live for,” summed up Hamilton who was pleased to beat the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.
“It felt great to see the Ferrari up ahead and be just catching it bit by bit,” said Hamilton. “It’s really impressive that they’re so quick on a single lap, but I don’t know what was going on within their race. But to come from 13th and then get back into the hustle with them was great. I think if I qualified where I should have probably qualified, I would have had a much easier, smoother day. But I prefer days like this where there’s a bit of adversity and you have to pull it all together and deliver, so great fun to do that.”
Here’s how F1 Miami GP panned out
