Russell taking ‘zero satisfaction’ from ‘lucky’ fourth place in Dutch Grand Prix

George Russell was the only Mercedes driver to finish the race in the points in Zandvoort – but despite coming home in what seemed a credible fourth, he was left frustrated and disappointed with how his Sunday panned out.

The Mercedes man finished just five seconds off the podium in the Netherlands, at the end of a chaotic race that featured three Safety Cars plus a Virtual Safety Car. Having started fifth, Russell was in the thick of the action – and yet, took no real positives away from the race.

His day quite literally started badly, as he lost a place off the line to Charles Leclerc. Russell could then not find a way back past the Ferrari, but was fortunate that Leclerc pitted before the first Safety Car. The time Russell gained with his ‘free’ stop leapfrogged him back ahead of the Monegasque driver – but that is where the day began to unravel.

Leclerc tried an aggressive move around the outside of Turn 11 and into the inside of Turn 12, and wound up barging past a slightly caught out Russell. But that left the Mercedes man with car damage, leading to him being asked to let team mate Kimi Antonelli through – a message that Russell appeared to question over the radio.

“I take zero satisfaction in finishing P4 after that race to be honest,” Russell said afterwards.

“It was a bad start, poor driving from my side. Then Charles passed me, then the pace was bad, then obviously the damage after the incident with Charles. Because of the damage I lost one second per lap, so it was just really not fun at all, and very lucky to finish in P4.”

The stewards did look into the overtake, but both drivers agreed it was a racing incident and so no further action was taken.

Russell was then fortunate to inherit two places when his team mate and Leclerc subsequently came together, the Ferrari man crashing out while Antonelli picked up enough penalties to drop outside of the top 10 post-race.

But with the car damage, he lacked the pace to try and chase down Isack Hadjar for the last podium place. But while fourth looked like a good return on paper, it was clear Russell was not happy with his Sunday.

“You hope when you return [from summer break] that it's going to be a bit more plain sailing but Formula 1 is never like that. But it just wasn’t a good race in many regards, and we just need to look at that, why that was,” added Russell.

“But the fact is the gaps between a lot of the teams now are very tight, and when you come to a track like this where overtaking is very difficult, that track position is vital, Qualifying is important and the pit stop strategy is very important. Luck – you know, Charles was unlucky with the Safety Car timing, and we were lucky with everything else that happened.

“Yeah, I need a day to assess it.”

The one thing Russell was quick to do was congratulate Hadjar on his maiden podium finish, saying the rookie did “an amazing job” and repeating that he himself “didn’t deserve” to finish on the rostrum at this race.

Russell does not have long to collect his thoughts and ascertain where his race went wrong though – as there are just a few days to go until the F1 circus travels to Monza, with the Italian Grand Prix getting underway next weekend.