George Russell finished second after a competitive race for Mercedes, but the Briton was left to reflect on what might have been after tyre difficulties prevented him from challenging for the top step of the podium.Russell was quick to congratulate his team-mate Kimi, whose impressive performance allowed him to steadily climb through the field. Watching Kimi move from fifth to fourth during the race convinced Russell that his team-mate had the pace to put himself into contention for victory.Mercedes appeared to be in a strong position during the early stages, but Russell's race became increasingly difficult as his tyres began to lose performance. The hard compound had already failed to deliver the expected level of performance from the opening stages, leaving Russell unable to maintain the same level of competitiveness as the race progressed.Despite missing out on victory, Russell believes Mercedes has made meaningful progress compared with the period before the summer break. The improvement is an encouraging sign for the team, even though Russell admitted that second place was not the result he ultimately wanted.
“Huge congratulations to Kimi; this is an incredible result for him! When I saw on the timing screens during the race that Kimi was running fifth and then fourth, I realised that he could potentially fight for the win.We were having a strong race, but then I simply started to struggle with the tyres, although the hard compound had not been working particularly well from the beginning. Nevertheless, things are going somewhat better for us now than they were before the summer break, and that is exactly what we had been aiming for. Of course, today I would have preferred to be standing on the top step of the podium.To be honest, I thought we were both committed to a one-stop strategy and that we would both remain out on track. In the end, things could have worked out differently, and there was certainly logic behind the team’s decision to split the strategies. In any case, Kimi showed fantastic pace.”