George Russell has blasted “lawnmower racing” following opening-lap incidents that may have cost him track position in Formula 1’s Mexico Grand Prix.
Polesitter Lando Norris tackled the first braking zone four-wide alongside Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, from inside to outside; while the former two stayed on the track, Leclerc and Verstappen ended up cutting Turn 2, then emerging in first and third respectively.
Hamilton snatched third position away from Verstappen around the outside of Turn 5, but couldn’t get back past Leclerc. Meanwhile, having taken a cautious inside line into the first corner, fifth-placed Russell saw his rivals go off the track and rejoin ahead of him, which he was livid about.
“I don’t understand how three drivers can cut the first corner and just continue in the position they entered,” the Mercedes racer told Sky Sports F1. “It’s like, allowing you to risk everything, but you just have a get-out-of-jail-free card if you get it wrong.”
Asked if there was a lack of consistency in stewarding decisions, Russell replied: “Well, I think it holds me down to the circuit. You know, if there is this get-out-of-jail-free card… If there was gravel, no one would be there.
“We’ve seen it almost every year we’ve been here. I think it was Carlos [Sainz] last year, Charles the year before, Lewis 10 years ago. It’s like a lawnmower racing.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“Something needs to change there. Because as I said, if you can just send it down the outside, you can either make it stick or you just cut the grass and you return in the position you were in before. That’s not really how it should be.”
Russell then further described the situation to written media: “Leclerc just made no attempt to stay on the track. Verstappen, obviously, just full risk, and got it wrong but continued in his place. The guys who did the right thing were the ones who came off worst.”
On lap 6, Verstappen attacked Hamilton down the inside in Turn 1, with the Ferrari driver hanging around the outside despite being pushed off the track on the exit of the corner. Finding himself on the outside for Turn 2, Verstappen cut Turn 3 and rejoined in front.
Hamilton caught him on the run to Turn 4, with Russell now close behind and ready to pounce if an opportunity arose. Hamilton locked up and went across the grass without taking the designated run-off line, landing a 10-second penalty due to sustaining a lasting advantage.
“Max and Lewis, when they came together, Lewis got the penalty rightly so, but Max was off the track, came back on in the wrong place, wrong time for me, and I lost three positions,” Russell told Sky, having dropped back behind Oliver Bearman and Mercedes team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli in that chain of events.
“Obviously I was pretty frustrated, but it all stemmed from lap one.”
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing runs wide
Photo by: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images
As the Briton later told written media, he believes Verstappen going off the track in his battle with Hamilton “should have been penalised as well”.
Turn 1 protagonists Norris, Leclerc and Verstappen eventually made up the podium, with Hamilton’s penalty dropping him down to eighth under the chequered flag while Russell finished a lowly seventh behind Antonelli.
“If I’d come out of the first corner P3, we’d have finished P3. That’s the story of the season,” Russell rued.
Additional reporting by Stuart Codling
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