George Russell did not have the best qualifying in Japan. The British driver could only be 8th fastest on Saturday. He, however, had a blistering start on Sunday. He was quick to make 2 places and was stacked behind teammate Lewis Hamilton. However, the joy was short-lived when Mercedes tried to double-stack their drivers for a change of tires.

Soon after the restart, drivers realized that certain parts of the track were not as wet as they assumed them to be. This prompted chaos in the pit lane with almost every driver coming in to get their wet tires replaced with intermediates.

George Russell on Mercedes double-stacking

Red Bull brought both their drivers in for tire changes at the same time. Mercedes doubled-stacked as well. However, things didn’t go as smoothly for them as they did for Red Bull.

Russell had to wait behind Hamilton for what felt like an eternity and saw all his hard work go in vain as he drove out of the pit lane to only rejoin the track in P14.

Livid with Mercedes’ decision, George said, “We need to review what went on.”

“I was right behind Lewis and double stacking, I was just going to lose all the positions. Not really much more to say, very frustrating afternoon. [I] probably could have fought for P5,” he continued.

George called the decision ‘the worst decision ever made’ on the team radio.

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Later, summing up his race, he said, “It was quite enjoyable out there, I made some good overtakes but we need to sit down with the team and see what we could have done better. That was probably, at the time, not the right thing to do.”

How the rest of the race panned out for Mercedes

Despite the mess made by Mercedes, Russell made an impressive comeback. The junior Mercedes driver managed to bag a P8 at the end of the race.

It was, however, his teammate and 7-time world champion who kept viewers on the edge of their seats. Hamilton kept gaining on 4th-placed Alpine driver, Esteban Ocon. The Brit came mighty close a couple of times, and once narrowly escaped from making contact with the Frenchman.

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Ocon defended with all his might and did not let Hamilton overtake him. Hamilton lacked straight-line speeds to make a move on Ocon. The task was even more difficult as DRS assistance was not allowed, due to the wet track. Hamilton finished the race in P5.