MONDAY MORNING DEBRIEF: How Russell held onto a brilliant P2 in Bahrain – despite car failures, tyre woes and a charging Norris on his tail

Special ContributorMark Hughes
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George Russell’s second place in the Bahrain Grand Prix was a superb demonstration of composure as he fought off the attacks of Lando Norris in the late stages, while dealing with an array of control system glitches in his Mercedes.

Even without the failed transponder, loss of dashboard functions, the failure of the DRS (drag reduction system) to automatically arm itself and the brake-by-wire function disappearing, Russell would already have been facing a difficult challenge in keeping the medium-tyred Norris behind him on a set of soft tyres.