George Russell’s top-5 streak ends at Imola: “We had to limit the damage”. George Russell ends his streak of top-5 finishes with a seventh place at Imola.

No top-5 this time
George Russell’s streak of consecutive top-5 finishes, which had lasted six GPs and two Sprints, came to an end. After a fantastic qualifying session yesterday, where he clinched a brilliant third place on the grid at the end of Q3, the Mercedes driver had a rather disappointing day today at Imola. After a good start and the brief illusion of taking second place at Tamburello, George Russell’s race quickly went backwards. At one point, also due to the Virtual Safety Car, the Brit had even dropped outside the points. In the end, he crossed the line in seventh, which still keeps him fourth in the championship.

Tough Sunday
“Today was a difficult day and, obviously, seventh place is not what we wanted,” commented the Mercedes driver. “From the start I had problems with the rear of the car and couldn’t find a good rhythm. With relatively high track temperatures, we suffered from overheating of the rear axle. It was difficult to keep the tyres in the right window and the pace reflected that. We couldn’t keep up with the leaders, so we had to limit the damage.” – the British driver pointed out at the end of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Focus already on Monaco
There’s no time to dwell too much on what happened, as it will soon be time to get back in the car: in seven days the Monaco GP is scheduled, where Russell hopes to shine given the strong one-lap speed the W16 has shown this year. “We’ll take the lessons from this weekend and move on quickly to Monaco. I’m looking forward to getting on track in the Principality,” George Russell concluded. “This season we’ve been good and consistent in qualifying, with very strong laps, and that will help us next week. Monaco is one of those races where a lot depends on Saturday, and I’m confident about what we can do there.”