George Russell has recently opened up on the unlucky night he spent in Bahrain in 2020. The current Mercedes driver recalled the night when he lost the great chance to win his first Grand Prix in Lewis Hamilton’s greatest car.
Speaking to the Square Mile, the former Williams driver shared his bitter experience of replacing Hamilton for a day in Mercedes and ending up getting heartbroken. A painful experience the British star will never forget.
Talking about the Mercedes opportunity, he revealed it “came very suddenly.” And then it was a rollercoaster for him. He had to unlearn what he did at Williams and relearn everything at the Silver Arrows.
But in the end, the 25-year-old was quite confident in jumping into the car and bringing home the win in the best possible car that season. However, Russell was on the wrong side of luck that night as he suffered two draconian issues to lose out on the win.
How did Russell fare in the Sakhir qualification?
As the young British driver came in to replace his helpless older compatriot, he was brilliant from the get-go. Despite being in new machinery, Russell was fast and almost at par with his temporary teammate Valtteri Bottas.
The then-Williams driver had brilliant qualifying sessions with the Mercedes challenger. Russell drove the W11 to max and churned out P3 in his very first qualifying with the Silver Arrows.
Following Q1, he finished Q2 in P5 and the final qualifying session in an impressive P2. He narrowly missed the pole position to Bottas by 0.026. But the new guy was able to fit into to shoes of Hamilton, and he was no less.
Russell’s race with Mercedes in Sakhir
Despite having a great qualifying session, Russell’s race was a nightmare in the end. Despite leading the race for most of it, two back-to-back unfortunate incidents killed it for him.
The 25-year-old had a great start as the lights went out. He overtook Bottas in the first corner and took the lead in the race. But luck had other ideas for him as the German team decided to pit both of its drivers after the virtual safety car was turned into a full safety car.
As both Russell and Bottas were in pits, the crew made a colossal error, fitted Bottas’ tire to Russell’s W11, and sent him out. Once out, and after the mistake was realized, the Briton was called again for the change.
After changing the tire, the 25-year-old began to go up the order, but unfortunately, he was hit with a right rear puncture. This setback totally diminished his hope of a GP win. In the end, the young British driver salvaged the fastest lap and P9 and his first-ever F1 points.
