Russell, a podium against all odds in Bahrain: "I pressed the radio button and the DRS opened"

As the Bahrain Grand Prix comes to a close, two questions arise regarding George Russell: how did he manage to maintain his second place until the finish? But above all, will he keep his podium in Sakhir? Indeed, the Briton is currently under investigation by the stewards for a technical infringement. He is said to have used his DRS at the wrong time, when he wasn't supposed to activate it. And the reason for this error is rather simple: at the end of the race, the Mercedes started to let go of its pilot with more and more breakdowns!

The problems started after the Safety Car was deployed with about twenty laps to go. The Briton, then in 2nd place after getting the better of Charles Leclerc at the start, attempted a "bold" strategy on soft tires to reach the finish. Unfortunately, as the laps went by, numerous electronic problems began to attack his carHis brakes, his GPS sensor and then his DRS system failed him, forcing the Englishman to activate his mobile spoiler manually by estimating the gap to the driver in front of him. All this, in addition to having to resist Lando Norris, who came back at high speed on his compatriot in the final laps. If he managed to maintain his mount and his position, he could lose his second place in the coming hours...

George Russell (Mercedes), 2nd in the Bahrain GP : “Everything seemed under control and then suddenly we had a brake-by-wire system failure, so the [brake] pedal was long, then short, I didn't know what was happening. The steering wheel wasn't working well, so it was really difficult to keep Lando [Norris] behind. One more lap and he would have had me! It wasn't very comfortable but whatever, I'm happy with 2nd place. Oscar [Piastres] was on another planet, so kudos to him and McLarenWe knew they would be pretty extraordinary on this circuit and they proved us right. For us, it's the third podium in four races, all on different types of circuit, so it gives us a lot of confidence for the future."

“I’m not sure [how I managed to keep the soft tires]. With Charles [Leclerc] on the hard tires and about 20 laps to go, I thought, ‘How are we going to make this work?’ But we managed. The team did a great job, it was a good weekend. (…) We had a lot of problems, especially with the DRS. On one lap, I pressed the radio button and the DRS opened, so I immediately closed it. I didn’t gain anything, I lost more because I slowed down, it was open for a fraction of a second. That shows you the extent of the problems we had.”

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