George Russell warns Mercedes to not repeat Interlagos defeat after Las Vegas GP pole
Despite bagging in the pole position for the Las Vegas GP, George Russell remained realistic and urged Mercedes to not do any mistakes.
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George Russell (Via: Imago)
Mercedes had a car that was working throughout the weekend, which helped George Russell clinch pole position ahead of the predicted Ferrari drivers. However, after recently losing the Brazilian GP after leading a fair chunk of the race, the Brit warned the German outfit not to have another repeat of the Interlagos mistakes.
George Russell started the race in Brazil on the front row and won the drag race to the first corner, which made him the leader of the race. However, a strategic mishap when Mercedes called him into the pits led him to lose track of position to his rivals just before the onset of a red flag period.
Moreover, the Englishman hadn’t recovered from his loss in Brazil, and witnessing how he would start the race from the front row again, he drew some eerie conclusions and warned Mercedes to not make another mistake during the Grand Prix on Saturday.
Definitely it’s not the first time we are on the front row. We were leading a position of the last race (Sao Paulo) but we didn’t convert it.
George Russell said in post qualifying interview
George Russell: Definitely it's not the first time we are on the front row. We were leading a position of the last race (Sao Paulo) but we didn't convert it.
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) November 23, 2024
On the other hand, the German outfit would have learned a lesson from their last race in Brazil and aim to convert the pole into a win tomorrow. However, Carlos Sainz would be hoping to ruin his plans during the Grand Prix as the Spaniard would like to make the most out of his time in front-running machinery before departing to join Williams.
George Russell revealed strategy Mercedes would be opting for the Las Vegas GP
With Russell starting from P1, he would not have to worry much about tire wear as he would not be sitting in the dirty air of a leading car. This would give the Brackley-based squad a wide variety of alternate strategies that they could opt for in the 50-lap race.
Despite this, Russell revealed that they would probably stay on a normal race strategy and start the race on the medium set of tires.
We will be starting on the medium and it will be looking after it. Then some will pit and others will go long. It’s Vegas, so I’ll take it as it comes.
George Russell said in post qualifying interview
Russell: We will be starting on the medium and it will be looking after it. Then some will pit and others will go long. It's Vegas, so I'll take it as it comes.
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) November 23, 2024
The two-time race winner seems eager to convert his pole into a race win for the first time. This would break his pole-to-win curse which had started to develop ever since he took his maiden pole position at the 2022 Hungarian GP, which he was unable to transform into a race win.
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Geetansh Pasricha
(772 Articles Published)