George Russell says that his Mercedes team is not sure where the pace came from in the Singapore Grand Prix after winning his second race of the season and the fifth in general.
Mercedes won in Canada in June, but it was not expected that it was particularly strong in the high temperatures of Singapore, where Russell was a minute behind Race winner Lando Norris a minute behind Race. But after qualifying in the pole position, Russell checked the race to beat Max Verstappen with more than five seconds, and says it will make up for a late crash at the same location in 2023.
“It feels great, especially after what happened a few years ago,” said Russell. “That was a bit of a missed opportunity, but we more than made up for it today. Just so grateful for the team. They did a great job all weekend. We don’t really know where this performance came from, but really happy.
“If I made a list of all the races that I thought we could win this year, this would probably be right at the bottom. So I think we should sit down tomorrow and Tuesday to understand why the performance was so good. I hope we can spend this to the rest of the season, but I think Lando looked incredibly fast.
Russell is looking for answers to the Mercedes performance and pay attention to some track changes compared to 12 months ago.
“I think there is fewer tires overheated this year compared to the past years. I think it is a song that had a big overheating in the past, but with some corners that have new asphalt, it is a bit smoother,” he noticed. “The tires seem a bit more robust this year. It was all just in a bit of a nicer window, but it was still a very surprise.”
Russell also believes that the crucial aspect of De Lijn race came, in which Red Bull started aggressively on the soft band – compared to the rest of the top seven on mediums – in an attempt to obtain early.
“I thought it was a smart step of those guys, because if Max jumped to me 1st turn 1 to be honest, I think he would have won the race because catching up was so challenging.
“You saw that Lando was definitely the fastest man there was, and he just couldn’t pass Max. He was every round within a second. If Lando couldn’t pass, I doubt if we could reach it. So it was crucial that we started the start. It was a strong point of mine this year, so I am glad we did that.”
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