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Russell: It was a long and tough race

Jad Mallak

Russell: It was a long and tough raceMercedes ‘ George Russell finished the 2022 French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard third, after what he described as a long and tough race.

It was not a straight forward race for the Briton, as he had to go through a stubborn Sergio Perez, with matters becoming too close for comfort between the two at one point.

However, after a Virtual Safety Car period, Russell caught Perez napping, and pulled off and opportunistic overtake the Mexican unable to regain his position with a handful of laps remaining.

“It was a long and tough race,” Russell said in Mercedes race report. “Our pace was strong, but we really struggled with the warm-up of the tyres on the restart and Checo was strong today.

Mercedes lacking consistency

“I was glad to see the chequered flag and come home P3,” he admitted. “We’re making a lot of progress and we really need to improve our qualifying performance as we’re lacking consistency. We know as a team we struggle with the tyre warm-up and at the restart I struggled with the same issue.

“Our race pace today was reasonable and we’re getting closer to the front,” the Mercedes driver claimed. “We’re doing everything we can to improve the performance of the car and we believe we are on the right path, so we’re excited what the next races can bring for us.

“We’re making progress and there is still more to come, thanks to everyone back at the factories in Brackley and Brixworth for their hard work and dedication,” Russell concluded.

Russell has been super consistent this season, and never finished below fifth in all but one race this season, the British Grand Prix, the site of his high profile crash with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.

He is currently fifth in the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship, one point behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in fourth.