Formula 1 | Mercedes, Russell at the foot of the podium: "Today on par with Ferrari"

from Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

George Russell was very close to achieving an incredible podium in Belgium. The Mercedes driver had a decidedly more competitive race pace than Sainz's Ferrari, third in front of him, but less constant in performance, in fact in the decisive final moment, the W13 no longer worked properly for a couple of laps, leaving the Englishman with a hint of bitterness in his mouth despite the good race he played.

“I have mixed feelings right now – Russell admitted. If you had told me yesterday that I would be two seconds away from the podium just with race pace, I would have reacted well, but I was closing on Carlos at the end, I was gaining a second per lap, and I believed it. But then I had a couple of laps in the wrong working window: when the tires are not at the right temperatures the car transforms, and therefore the podium was lost. Overall it's not bad: our pace was probably better than Ferrari's, considering that Carlos started from pole and ahead of everyone in the first stint, we effectively closed the gap. Today we were on par with Ferrari, there are some performance fluctuations, while the only clear thing is that Max seems unattainable and continues to move away."