George Russell says Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff spoke to him during the race to reassure him after he “vented his frustration” on the radio.
The Mercedes driver was furious after he skidded onto the escape route at Mirabeau, costing him what he saw as a chance to finish on the podium.
“It was an extremely boring race until the rain came – and it came out of nowhere because it wasn’t really in the forecast,” he told the media, including RaceFans.
Starting from eighth place, he moved up to third place, not pitted as other drivers did before the late rain. However, he made a costly mistake shortly after switching to intermediates.
“I’m really kidding myself because third place was almost guaranteed after I didn’t pit,” he admitted. “I left, there was a yellow flag, I backed up and as soon as I touched the brake I closed the lock and followed Stroll down the escape route.
“It’s probably a lesson that when you’re not really on it and you’re not focused, you make these mistakes. Probably if the yellow flag wasn’t there I would just be more focused and not leave and cost most of the team a comfortable P3.
When he got back on the track, Russell got tangled up Sergio Perez. The stewards ruled that the Mercedes driver had returned to the track in an unsafe manner and penalized him with a five-second time penalty.
He said Russell was “taking out his frustration on himself” on the radio when Wolff spoke to him. “As a driver, sometimes you want to vent that frustration and maybe it’s not easy for everyone to understand why.”
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“Actually, I found out that my mistake was not shown on TV until after the race replay,” he added. “Rejoining was due to a previous error.
“I don’t think it’s clear to many people that we were actually third on the track and we lost it. So a lot of people texted me saying you did well for P5, not realizing that I actually made a big mistake and it cost us P3.”
Contact with Perez threatened Russell’s lead. “It definitely damaged the car a bit. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to continue, but as the laps went on things settled down.
“I think the toe (angles) was bent backwards. I felt very uncomfortable in the car, but at the time we were the fastest on the track, so I don’t know what was going on.
He was able to build a sufficient gap Charles Leclerc that he did not lose his position after imposing the penalty. “As soon as I found out we were safe for Charles, I just brought him home,” he said. “It’s very disappointing when you do everything right 98% of the time, but that one little mistake costs everything.”
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