After taking the fight to one of the Ferraris at the British GP, George Russell claims the Monegasque did ‘questionable defending’ on his part
George Russell took a hit at the Ferraris at British GP and questioned the defensive tactics displayed by Charles Leclerc.
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Charles Leclerc was accused of “questionable defending” at the Formula One British Grand Prix by George Russell, who said that some of the Ferrari driver’s tactics were “borderline.” Russell, who started behind the Ferraris in Sunday’s British Grand Prix, used his soft tires to grab fifth place putting behind Charles Leclerc, who had overtaken Carlos Sainz. Russell attempted to overtake Leclerc multiple times, but the Monégasque driver slammed the door shut with at least one of his uncertain defense maneuvers.
Russell trailed Leclerc for the opening 18 laps of the race but couldn’t pass him until the latter had an early first pit stop. Russell later emerged from his own lengthy pit break behind Leclerc, having completed an exceptionally extended first stint on the soft tires. The duo then had a brief but spectacular battle until Russell passed on his way to fifth place. Russell expressed his happiness post-race as he expressed how brilliant his tyres were given he used those for 28 Laps and managed a one-second gap to the next car behind him to avoid DRS detection.
When asked about the heated exchange from Leclerc during Overtaking in the race, he said “I did my best to overtake Charles, some questionable defending at points. But it wouldn’t have changed my race. Had I got past him, it probably would have meant I would have boxed even earlier.” “It was just about braking into Turn 16. I was about to lunge him down inside and right at the braking zone he came across pretty aggressively.” Russell later accused those kinds of defending are not allowed in the rules and Ferrari driver’s engineer Xavier Marcos Padros asked Leclerc “No more moving under braking”, it became clear that Leclerc went too hard on Russell and might have caused a Penalty if that was to continue.
The weekend was not how George Russel had hoped his outing in his home country would go
Russell stated that he had no intention of pursuing the topic at the next drivers’ briefing.“I don’t think I need to,” he said, “It was very borderline. I need to look at a video again.” Russell later clarified that he has not seen a replay yet and he is not too concerned about the incident right now. Russell’s battle with Leclerc was not his only disappointment on the day, as the Briton attempted and failed to pass Oscar Piastri during a Safety Car restart.
Despite being on soft tires versus Piastri’s hards, Russell was unable to exploit and finally slipped out of DRS range. Lewis Hamilton, his teammate, experienced a similar issue with Lando Norris’ McLaren as they battled for second place. Russell confessed that he anticipated being able to compete with the McLarens in the latter stages of the race while he was on the medium tire and Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri surprisingly had made an unexpected switch to hards. Perhaps, if they put the soft on with their car, it may not have worked the same way as it worked on ours.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)