Mercedes’ George Russell has “mixed feelings” about his comeback drive to finish fifth in 2022 Miami Grand Prix.
Having topped Friday Practice, Russell could only manage 12th on the grid in Qualifying which led him to go on the alternate one-stop strategy as he started on the hard tyres.
That gamble initially looked to be futile as he slipped to 15th at the start but his patience saw the track evolution eventually fall his way, having opted to further gamble on staying out until a Safety Car was deployed before switching to the medium tyres.
His decision-making was eventually rewarded as the Virtual Safety Car was initially deployed on Lap 41, which enabled him to pit from fifth and re-join in seventh as the Safety Car was then deployed for the following five laps.
Upon resumption of the race for a ten-lap sprint finish on Lap 47, Russell fought Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton hard until he was able to get through on Lap 50 to finish fifth, just one lap after both Mercedes cars benefitted from a small error by Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.
Russell however had “mixed feelings” about his fifth-placed finish after his performance in Friday Practice but admitted that there is pace to find as he added: “We have a fast race car in there, we just don’t have the key to unlock this performance.”
On his late-race duel with Hamilton, Russell commented: “Towards the end of the race today, when you’re battling with your teammate, you’ve got to show respect, a bit more room than normal.
“The move was a bit tricky, I went a bit wide, but it’s so dirty offline around this circuit. Obviously it was clear I went off the track and had to do it all over again.
“I enjoyed it and I think there’s good respect between us. But Lewis was unlucky today, when you are on 20 lap old Hard tyres there’s not a lot you can do really.”
Hamilton meanwhile had a poor start which saw him slip from sixth to eighth but he recovered both positions by the end of Lap Six, where he stayed for the majority of the race amidst only briefly claiming fifth at the end of Lap 49 but was passed by Russell on the next lap.
The seven-time champion though believes that the team managed “good points” to consolidate third but had high praise for Russell’s drive as he said: “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 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.”
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