Jolyon Palmer absolutely ‘loved’ something he saw George Russell do at the Chinese Grand Prix

George Russell’s took back-to-back podiums with his third place in the Chinese Grand Prix, behind the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

After starting the race from second place on the grid, Russell was hopeful of taking an early lead away from polesitter Piastri.

Instead, he was picked off by Norris in the first three corners, but Russell would get his revenge later in the race when Mercedes delivered an aggressive pit strategy.

Russell was the first of the top three to make his one and only pit stop for hard tyres, which enabled Mercedes to put pressure on McLaren to pit Norris.

It would set up a move that Jolyon Palmer said he ‘loved’ from Russell when speaking on the F1 TV post-race show.

Jolyon Palmer ‘loved’ George Russell’s overtake on Lando Norris

When Norris emerged from the pit lane, Russell was alongside him heading into Turn 1 and pulled off an aggressive move around the outside to take second place back.

The pair would swap positions again with the help of DRS on the start/finish straight, in a move Norris said reminded him of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello at Hungary in 2010.

“It was a really nice fight, I loved this move that Russell put on Norris. At the start Russell was a bit boxed in, but he managed to get right around the outside,” said Palmer.

“When you’re in that position and you’ve got more grip than the car ahead, you’ve got to stop it and not run into the back of the tailender, and he just measures it perfectly and uses Lance Stroll to get past Norris.”

Mercedes gains more places after Ferrari disqualification

Both Ferrari drivers were disqualified after the Chinese GP following two separate technical infringements, which promoted Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Hamilton was disqualified for having excessive skid block wear, while Leclerc was thrown out for being underweight by 1kg after the FIA technical delegate found his car weighed 799kg once they had drained the fuel out and fitted a spare front wing.

The disqualifications meant that every driver moved up two places, with Carlos Sainz earning his first points for Williams while Haas also took home an extra nine points with Oliver Bearman promoted P8 and Esteban Ocon P5.

Antonelli moved up to P6, which gained him and Mercedes an extra four points, after he initially finished in P8 on the road.