George Russell regrets a rather unimpressive Hungarian GP. The Mercedes driver finished seventh, after having fallen far back at the start; his car went into anti-stall mode, causing him to tumble from P6 to P20. In the race, he managed to limit the damage somewhat. The problem at the start was yet another stroke of bad luck for Russell, who is looking forward to a calmer second half of the season.
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“A terrible start, that’s how you could describe it,” Russell sighed afterwards to Sky Sports. “Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about it. Something just went very wrong.” In the race, the Englishman managed to make up many places, but a podium finish was out of reach at the Hungaroring. Teammate Kimi Antonelli managed to limit the damage from his qualifying – P7 after a grid penalty – better and finished in third place.
‘Keep working on myself’
“I am satisfied that the pace was high,” Russell continued somewhat optimistically. “The team said it was as good as the rest of the field, which is a bright spot. But besides that, the problems are just piling up.” What exactly happened at his start? “I pressed the throttle and waited, and then the engine suddenly went wild. The RPM went all over the place. This can be added to the long list of things that went wrong in the first half of the season. Let’s hope the second half is a bit calmer.”
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“I remain positive,” he quickly added. “I am hugely disappointed with everything that has happened in the first half of the year, but at some point, you have to pick yourself up and accept that there are many things you have no control over and that can work against you. There are things I do have control over and that I need to do better. I will continue to work on those.”
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