George Russell says his Mercedes team is unsure where its pace came from at the Singapore Grand Prix after winning his second race of the season, and fifth overall.
Mercedes won in Canada back in June but had not been expected to be particularly strong in the high temperatures of Singapore, where Russell was over a minute behind race winner Lando Norris a year ago. But after qualifying on pole position, Russell controlled the race to beat Max Verstappen by over five seconds, and says it makes up for a late crash at the same venue in 2023.
“It feels amazing, especially after what happened a couple of years ago,” Russell said. “That was a bit of a missed opportunity, but we more than made up for it today. Just so grateful for the team. They did an amazing job this whole weekend. We don’t really know where this performance came from, but really happy.
“If I were to make a list of all the races I thought we could win at this year, this would probably be right at the bottom. So I think we need to sit down tomorrow and Tuesday to sort of understand why the performance was so good. I hope we can carry this through to the rest of the season, but I think realistically, Lando looked incredibly fast. He was within a second of Max the whole race. And around this circuit, that’s not easy.”
Seeking answers for the Mercedes performance, Russell did note some track changes compared to 12 months ago.
“I think there’s been less tire overheating this year compared to years gone by. I think it’s a track that in the past had major overheating, but with some of the corners having new tarmac, it’s a bit smoother,” he noted. “The tires seem a little bit more robust this year. It was all just in a bit of a nicer window, but nevertheless, it was still quite a surprise.”
Russell also believes the crucial aspect of the race came off the line, with Red Bull aggressively starting on the soft tire – compared to the rest of the top seven on mediums – in an attempt to gain track position early.
“I thought it was a smart move from those guys because if Max jumped me at Turn 1, to be honest, I think he would have won the race, because overtaking was so challenging.
“You saw Lando was definitely the quickest guy out there, and he just couldn’t pass Max. He was within a second every single lap. If Lando couldn’t get past, I doubt we would have been able to achieve it. So, it was crucial that we nailed the start. It’s been a strong point of mine this year, so I’m glad we did.”