George Russell managed to finish the Bahrain Grand Prix in second place, despite dealing with a myriad of problems with his Mercedes in the final laps of the race.
The Briton was running ahead of Lando Norris when he first encountered problems with his transponder system which impacted his DRS usage, and then that manifested into a brake-by-wire issue.
Russell’s Mercedes engineer Marcus Dudley coached him over the team radio on how to manage the problem, but it was a frantic final few laps for him as Norris piled on the pressure.
It was only when Russell crossed the line that he revealed the extent of the problem, with his brakes effectively not working.
Discussing how he managed the problem on his YouTube channel, Peter Windsor branded the drive the best he’s seen ‘in a long, long time.”
George Russell impresses Peter Windsor with Bahrain GP issue management
It looked like it would be difficult for Russell to hold on to second place, given the pace of the McLaren’s after the mid-race Safety Car.
Mercedes chose to put him on the soft tyre, which impacted his performance at the end of the race with Norris on a new set of Mediums.
“For me, George Russell’s drive was one of the best I’ve seen in a long, long time. In a car that was not as good as the McLaren,” said Russell.
“It was a big ask and by the last five laps George had lost his soft tyre grip advantage, Lando was behind him with a better car, with DRS, and on top of that he had to deal with an electronics problem.”
“Unbelievably precise and effective driving from George in defence, in a way that I’ve never seen him before. Never put a wheel out of line where it was late braking or where he needed to get it right at the turn-in point.”
- READ MORE: The best moments of George Russell’s career in Formula 1
George Russell escapes post-race penalty
Russell’s second place was under threat after the race pending the outcome of an investigation by the FIA Stewards, who were reviewing his use of DRS.
Data from the race showed that Russell activated DRS for 37 meters on the start/finish straight before immediately closing it, with the Briton going on to give up 0.28s at the next corner to compensate.
They decided against giving him a sporting penalty because he gave up any advantage, while they acknowledged that Russell also made a mistake as the DRS manual override button is also used to activate the backup radio.
The lack of action is also in line with previous investigations the FIA has made into accidental DRS usage, with Sergio Perez escaping any penalty in 2018 after activating it outside of the zones in Baku.
