Overtaking suffered, on the track and in the standings
The first ‘cue’ of 2026 at Mercedes is signed by the driver you don’t expect, that is, the ‘veteran’ George Russell who didn’t even get on the podium for the first time in the season at Suzuka, finishing the Japanese GP in fourth place. English has in this way also lost the leadership of the championship to the advantage of his teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who now leads the World Championship with a margin of nine points over Russell.
There was definitely one bad luck component in Russell’s defeat: the Safety Car caused by the terrible accident that occurred to Ollie Bearman entered the track immediately after his pit stop and immediately before Antonelli’s stop, thus guaranteeing the driver from Bologna a ‘free’ pit stop which allowed him to take the lead of the race. Russell then also paid some battery management problem during the restart phase and in the following laps, being overtaken at two different times by the two Ferraris. His ascent then stopped at the foot of the podium, hindered by the magnificent defense and a splendid counter-overtaking by Charles Leclerc.
It always happens to me
To the microphones of Sky Sports F1 Russell let go of one vent precisely on the misfortune that he says is haunting him and has seemed to see a few too many ghostsin an internal dualism with Antonelli that #63 seems to be starting to suffer quite a bit.
“I definitely don’t feel lucky – said Russell – but that’s how races are. Over the course of the year, sometimes it goes well, other times it goes badly. It’s annoying that I wasn’t able to get on the podium because on the restart behind the Safety Car I wasn’t able to recharge the battery and was overtaken by Lewis. After that I had another problem with the battery, with Charles. Dangerous situation? I was going so slowly that it was clear he could avoid me, but they are still very complicated cars.”.
“It’s still very early and you have to make mistakes in order to learn – added the Brit – though at the moment all the problems seem to be coming my way and that’s quite frustrating, honestly. Did I lack speed? I wouldn’t say that. If there hadn’t been that difference in the flying lap maybe we would have won the race and it would have been another conversation. I don’t have much else to say“.
