George Russell says he would have risked the same way as he did with Esteban Ocon in F1 Italian GP as he knew Top 5 was the maximum for him.
Even though Mercedes were behind Red Bull and Ferrari in F1 Italian GP, Russell had a better outing than teammate Lewis Hamilton. The latter was stuck behind Williams and McLaren and had to try different strategy to get through them eventually.
It worked well in that way while Russell more or less had a lonely race apart from the initial fight against Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. It was enjoyable for the Brit considering that the Mexican is in a quicker car and was destined to finish second on the road.
He made it difficult to pass which included run-off moments and lock-ups too. “There was a lot going on,” said Russell to media. “I surprised how long it took Checo to pass with the superior pace of that car, they were so fast in the high speed corners. We saw it in qualifying. Probably a factor into there, better tyre degradation than the rest of us.
“But I was pretty pleased to hold them off for that long, and felt good and confident on the braking into Turn 1. I mean, every fight is enjoyable, but it’s definitely more enjoyable when you’re the attacking car in a faster car than the defending car in a slower car. You know that you’ve got to really nail your braking, nail every corner.
“Because if you don’t, they’ll just sweep past you and, yeah, there’s something satisfying about it when you do manage to hold a car off like that for so long. So, you know, I take a small positive in that, there was no mistakes from my side in those laps. But unfortunately, the pace just wasn’t there,” summed up Russell.
His fighting didn’t end their just. Even though he was comfortable fifth by the end of the grand prix, he still pushed for a move against Alpine’s Esteban Ocon while emerging from the pits. The Brit took the ‘get out of jail free’ run-off at Turn 1.
By the time he could him the place back, they were in different spots and so Russell had to take a penalty. But he wasn’t shy about it as he noted that he would have done the same again but added that the Turn 1 run-off maybe needs a rethink.
“I knew that I had to be a maximise out lap, I came out of the pits right behind or next to Ocon,” said Russell. “And I knew if I fell behind him, my chance to undercut the guy’s ahead was disappeared. So I went in very hot into Turn 1, knowing there was a bit of a risk to miss the corner, and that’s what happened.
“But it’s, yeah, in Monza, it’s a bit of a shame, because it’s always a bit of a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card with the run-off there. And that gives drivers, especially when you’re fighting, the chance to miss the corner. So I’d probably like to see a bit of a change in that corner in the future. But I knew that P5 was probably the worst that we could have achieved, considering the gap to the guy in P6. So it would have only compromised me if it was a safety car right at the end,” summed up Russell.
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