George Russell believes that Mercedes have “taken a step forward” following his return to the podium at 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Since his victory in Canada, Russell failed to reach the podium in the following three races which saw him finish fifth in Austria and Belgium, plus tenth at his home race at Silverstone.
The Brit however benefitted from a poor final stint in Hungary by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to snatch third place from the Monegasque on lap 62 to complete an all-Mercedes powered podium, albeit behind McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Russell however was pleased with the improved performance after a backstep step in the last three races although he found his overtake on Leclerc to be a gamble.
“We’ve taken a step forward with the car this weekend, so it is a deserved reward for the hard work of everyone at Brackley and Brixworth. It looked like we were on for a lonely P4, but we closed on Leclerc in the closing stages.
“The overtake itself was a little dicey; I committed to the corner, and he clearly moved under braking, for which he was given a penalty. Thankfully there was no harm done and we were able to take P3.”
F1 now is on a summer break before heading to Zandvoort, Netherlands, on weekend of 29-31 August with Russell confident that they can build on the progress with optimism.
“This result gives us encouragement heading into the summer break and we can look forward to the final 10 races of the year now with more confidence. We can’t get carried away as we didn’t expect to be in the top three this weekend.
“We know the competitive order behind McLaren is tight and we will need to be at our best to fight for podiums consistently in the second half of the season.”
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