George Russell had a disastrous Qatar Grand Prix which saw him finish in fourth place, having failed to convert his pole position into a podium or victory.
It was clear from the outset that Russell would be in for a difficult race after he was promoted to pole, after the stewards determined Max Verstappen drove “unnecessarily slowly” during qualifying.
Verstappen felt a sense of injustice after Russell aggressively argued his case to the stewards, prompting a response on track within the first 300 meters. With his Red Bull angled towards Russell, the Dutchman utilised a better second phase of the start and took the lead into Turn 1.
Russell also lost out to Lando Norris, with his race going from bad to worse as he continued to drop behind the frontrunners. Mercedes pitted him early in an attempt to undercut and see off any threat from Ferrari, however, a slow seven-second stop saw him return into traffic outside the top 10 places.
The Mercedes driver would be later penalised for a Safety Car infringement and handed a five-second time penalty after the race, but managed to keep his P4 finish ahead of Pierre Gasly. Discussing his race on the Chequered Flag podcast, Sam Bird said he was ‘pretty fortunate’ to finish in the top five after such a messy race.
George Russell ‘fortunate’ to finish in top five in Qatar Grand Prix
It appeared Mercedes was suffering dramatically on race pace as both Russell and Lewis Hamilton complained about understeer.
Bird thinks Russell will be disappointed that he walked away having not converted his pole into a podium, however, the Briton still had a better afternoon than Hamilton who finished outside of the points after getting a drive-through penalty.
“It was messy for George Russell. I think he’s come out of it pretty fortunate to get a P4. He dropped places at the start, dropped down to third. He was on slightly older medium tyres compared to the people he was racing against but then pitted early, and suffered a bad pit stop that pushed him right down the order,” said Bird.
“He was going to get overtaken by both Ferraris, then Mercedes boxed again under the Safety Car, and they put him back out on the hards. He questioned that decision and wasn’t happy at all, but in the end he’s come away with fourth place. I think he will be disappointed with the day’s work, but thankful he’s come away with 12 points.”
What ‘seething’ Max Verstappen said to George Russell before Qatar GP
Russell and Verstappen were involved in a verbal altercation before the race, after the latter felt he argued his case too aggressively to the stewards in their hearing post-qualifying.
According to Ted Kravitz, the Dutchman was unhappy with Russell and that it was all captured by the Drive to Survive Netflix series cameras.
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Verstappen would later go on to say in the Drivers’ Press Conference referring to Russell: “I’ve been in the [stewards] meeting room many times, I never saw someone screw someone over that hard, and then I lost all the respect.”
The Dutchman responded well to Russell’s forceful approach on the stewards by winning the race in the third best car on the grid, which Damon Hill believes ‘says it all’ about Verstappen.
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