"The McLarens were super-impressive," says Mercedes driver George Russell
Jul 10, 2023
Nottingham [UK], July 10 : In the British Grand Prix race on Sunday, McLaren drivers get a splendid result for their team even Mercedes driver George Russell was mesmerised by their performance as he said, 'The McLarens were super-impressive."
Lando Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri wowed the crowds at Silverstone with a run to second and third in a wet-dry qualifying session, before the home favourite followed Red Bull's Max Verstappen home for a memorable P2 finish on race day.
According to the official website of Formula 1, George Russell said, "The McLarens were super-impressive, they drove a great race," he said. "I feel bad for Oscar because he was driving really, really well. I've been super-impressed by what he's been achieving this year and he was the deserving podium finisher. Unfortunate Safety Car timing hindered him and hindered myself."
He added, "In the end, I think it was a relatively good weekend for us. Our pace compared to Ferrari, Aston and Red Bull was probably better than we thought, but those McLarens have just come from nowhere, so we don't really know what to think."
Asked if McLaren's performance gives him a heart that things can get turned around relatively quickly, Russell commented: "It does, it definitely does, but you need to know where to look. I believe we know where we're looking and what we're chasing, but I don't know. I hope it's a one-off, but they were quick in Austria as well, which is a totally different circuit."
"Regardless, it's very impressive what they've done. Even so, I thought their strategy was wrong, going on the hards. The soft was such a great tyre, they would have been even further ahead had they put the softs on. Interesting, a bit of head scratching right now."
The seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton also praised the McLaren drivers as he said, "I just want to say a big congratulations to Lando, and to McLaren, where. It's my family, it's where I first started, so to see them back up there, looking so strong... I mean that thing was rapid through the high-speed corners, wow! I couldn't keep up, but we had a good little battle on the restart."
Expanding on his fight with Norris, Hamilton added: "Once he [went] through Turn 13 and 14, or 15, he's gone! We had good performance in the low-speed, we had a good little battle there, just didn't have the grunt on the straights.
