Contrary to what a large majority thought, the French Grand Prix was intense until the last corner in terms of the fight for the podium, a battle in which George Russell emerged the winner.
The British driver, after a very consistent race, starred in a great wheel-to-wheel duel against Sergio Pérez in which they were fighting for the third step of the podium with a knife between their teeth.
At the beginning of the test, the Mercedes W13 did not seem to have the same pace as Red Bull and Ferrari, but after the withdrawal of Charles Leclerc things changed, especially for the two drivers mentioned above.
Starting from the back of the grid, Carlos Sainz climbed many positions, but after reaching third place, he had to pit to change wheels and serve a five-second penalty that would put him out of contention.
At that moment, Pérez and Russell were already immersed in an intense battle, moment in which at the chicane of the ‘Mistral’ straight, the Briton launched himself against the Mexican, who closed the door on him. The touch forced Checo to skip the chicane, keeping his position.
Russell complained about the incident, but Race Direction decided not to intervene, so he had to take risks on the track to try and climb to the last place on the podium.
In the last five laps, a Virtual Safety Car forced everyone to take their foot off the accelerator and that was the golden opportunity for the Briton, because Pérez was confused on the restart.
“It was a very tough race, I was sweating a lot and I’m very tired, but we had a good pace, although after the VSC restart it was difficult for me to warm up the tyres,” said Russell .
“I passed Checo but he was right behind until the end. It was a good battle and I’m happy to finish third.”
On paper, it did not seem that the Mercedes could put pressure on the Red Bull, but while Lewis Hamilton was limited to maintaining second position by not being able to catch up with Max Verstappen, his teammate managed to win a very important duel against the driver from Guadalajara.
“He had a very good pace, when Sainz passed us, I saw that he had a chance to fight Perez , I saw that he was suffering with the tires or something,” he said.
“At the chicane, in my opinion, it’s obvious what happened, I was on the inside and he didn’t give me any room. The rules are clear on that.”
“Anyway, I kept pushing hard and managed to give Mercedes the double podium, which is a great result alongside Lewis,” concluded the young Briton.
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