Russell details ‘frustrating’ opening lap issue in Mexico City that cost him a shot at victory

George Russell endured another “frustrating” issue with his Mercedes on the opening lap of the Mexico City Grand Prix that hampered his chance to win, with the Briton ultimately bringing home eight points in P6.

A competitive Qualifying saw Russell miss out on pole position by just 0.009s to Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, but his quick start at lights out was cancelled out by a deployment problem that saw him lose multiple places.

He ended up in a battle for fifth with Isack Hadjar and tapped the rear of the Red Bull, sending his rival into a spin and subsequently receiving a 10-second time penalty for the collision.

Russell then managed to hold off McLaren’s Lando Norris before peeling into the pits, where his longer stop meant he lost P5 in the race and P2 in the Drivers’ Championship, his team mate Kimi Antonelli securing the latter with his third-place finish.

“Firstly, congratulations to Kimi on a thoroughly deserved championship,” Russell reflected. “He has done a fantastic job this season and can be incredibly proud of what he has achieved.

“Unfortunately, it was a very disappointing race on my side. I made a good start and was in a strong position, but then we suffered an issue which caused me to not have full deployment down the straight.

“That cost us a lot of positions and ultimately took us out of contention for a strong result. It’s frustrating to have the race compromised by something outside of my control but that is racing.

“We will reset after this weekend and look to come back stronger in Brazil. We still have a Constructors’ Championship to win and my full focus is on helping the team achieve that.”

Russell has borne the brunt of Mercedes’ reliability struggles this season – in Belgium, for example, he suffered poor deployment that similarly saw him caught up in contact with another driver.

The bad luck that has impacted his results at times left Team Principal Toto Wolff to take responsibility after the Mexico City Grand Prix, especially as a race win could’ve softened the blow of his team mate being crowned World Champion.

“I saw George after the race on the scales and obviously he is distraught about the situation,” Wolff told written media after the race. “It was a great show of sportsmanship to go and see Kimi. I have known George for such a long time.

“He is going through a hard time. For a racing driver this is a catastrophic moment and maybe today the race was a little bit a picture of his season, you know, this was a race for him to win.

“We had the pace in the car, and we let him down on the first straight. The energy delivery is not what we thought it should be. And so, I'm very much with him at the moment – I've been in situations where it’s very difficult to cope.”