George Russell admits fourth place at Zandvoort was down to luck, not performance | F1 Dutch GP. George Russell finished fourth in the 2025 Dutch GP at Zandvoort.

George Russell saves the result, not the performance

The Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort marked the beginning of the final part of the season. For George Russell, it was a complicated race and, despite some “luck” helping him to cross the line in fourth place, the Mercedes driver did not appear satisfied with his overall performance.

The British driver lost out in a wheel-to-wheel battle against Charles Leclerc on the opening lap, when the Ferrari driver completed an impressive overtaking move. Russell then managed to get back ahead of the Monegasque when the timing of the Safety Car worked against Leclerc.

The battle between Charles Leclerc and George Russell during the Dutch Grand Prix

Later on, at the restart following the Virtual Safety Car, Russell was caught off guard and lost ground again to Leclerc, who pulled off another ambitious overtake. The two drivers made contact, leaving Russell with damage to his Mercedes that forced him to allow Kimi Antonelli through. In the end, Russell finished in fourth place, taking advantage of the incident between Antonelli and Leclerc and the retirement of Lando Norris.

“To be honest, I am not at all satisfied with finishing the race in fourth place. It was a bad start, my driving was not up to standard. Then Charles overtook me, then the pace was terrible, and obviously the damage after the incident with Charles made it even worse. Because of the damage I was losing a second per lap, so it was not fun at all and I was extremely lucky to end up in P4.”

Russell and his good fortune

George Russell has developed a reputation as a driver who often finds himself in the right place at the right time. On Sunday at Zandvoort, he openly admitted that, unlike Charles Leclerc, luck was entirely on his side. The Mercedes driver nevertheless pointed out that he had been hoping for a calmer return after the summer break.

“When you come back from the summer break, you hope the race will be a little more straightforward, but Formula 1 is never like that. It was not a good race from many points of view, and we need to analyse why this happened. The fact is that now the gaps between many teams are very small, and on a circuit like this, where overtaking is extremely difficult, track position is fundamental, qualifying becomes decisive, and pit stop strategy is crucial. As for luck: Charles was unlucky with the Safety Car timing, while we were lucky with everything else.”