George Russell led the first half of a scintillating Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.
George Russell said he was “shocked” by the call to continue while the weather worsened at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday.
Rain hit hard midway through a thrilling race, with Russell having taken the lead from Lando Norris and led the first part of the Grand Prix before his pit stop, which was eventually red-flagged on lap 32 following a crash for Franco Colapinto.
George Russell ‘shocked’ by race continuation decision in wet conditions
With the race continuing as the weather got worse, a couple of drivers opted to move to full wet tyres in Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda, with the Red Bull and VCARB drivers taking seconds out of those to remain on intermediates.
The eventual top three of Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly stayed out until the red flag was eventually called, but the Safety Car was put out beforehand while the worst of the rain was over the track – with Colapinto crashing under Safety Car conditions to prompt the red flag.
This stoppage allowed the drivers a free choice of tyres, with the Mercedes driver expressing frustration at not staying out in the belief that a yellow or red flag would eventually come – though he said he and the team are “in this together” when it comes to strategy calls.
But given the fact he could not stay on the throttle in the left-hand kink on the start/finish straight and with visibility poor as the weather worsened, Russell expressed his surprise at the proceedings now being halted sooner.
“I was shocked, to be honest,” Russell said to Sky F1 after the race.
“I mean, we could barely keep, like, I couldn’t keep my foot on the gas down the straight.
“The car was aquaplaning, exceptionally dangerous for those couple of laps, but they like action, I guess.”
As for Russell, he was the highest finisher of those to stop prior to the red flag, with Lando Norris admitting after the race his compatriot was potentially the deserving winner on Sunday – though Verstappen’s rise from 17th on the grid for victory was a dramatic one.
In explaining his initial concern at not staying out to benefit from the same ‘free’ tyre choice as those in front of him, Russell offered insight into the team’s processes on this area in wet races.
“You know, we’re in this together as a team and we would have already taken P4 ahead of the weekend,” he added.
“We’ll go over it. Sometimes it’s difficult to predict what’s about to happen, everybody is doing their their best and making the best calls with the information available.
“Normally, when it’s drying, it’s the team’s call to say ‘let’s go to slicks’, when it’s getting wetter, it’s normally the driver’s call to say slicks to inter or inters to wets.
“I was pretty, well, I was very confident it was going to go Safety Car or a red flag, because it was like driving a boat.”
