“That was a mistake by George Russell”: Mercedes star should be punished for Sergio Perez incident opines Dutch F1 expert

Mercedes star George Russell should have been punished for allegedly dive bombing Sergio Perez claims F1 expert Olav Mol.

The French Grand Prix saw an amazing battle between Sergio Perez and George Russel for the P3 position. The Mercedes star managed to overtake the Mexican race driver when he was caught napping at the end of the virtual safety car.

However, before that, Russell also allegedly dive-bombed Perez in one of their earlier battles, hitting the RB18. Thus, many F1 fans thought Russell should have been penalized.

But the Briton managed to go without any penalty from the FIA. Dutch F1 expert Olav Mol claims Russell should have been penalized for his aggressive racing.

“That was a mistake by Russell that he should have punished,” Motorsport.com quotes the Dutch commentator as having told Grand Prix Radio.

“And he kept on nagging until Toto Wolff yelled, ‘Friend, take it easy and drive on.’ George lingered in the moment and in his own right for a little too long.”

That was a cool race!! Mega happy to be back on the podium after some hard battles and even better to make it a double for @MercedesAMGF1 with @LewisHamilton. Let’s keep pushing, team. 👊 pic.twitter.com/EwcavVpTdk

— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) July 24, 2022

Also read: Christian Horner lauds Red Bull in their effort to outshine Ferrari and Mercedes

George Russell says Mercedes is unmatchable with warm tyres

Mercedes is certainly the third-best team on the grid as of now. However, they falter in the qualifying and often lose pace on their flying laps.

That is because Mercedes needs time with its tyres to catch up with its top speed. Therefore, they seem to do better in the last phase of the race.

“It was really tricky in those last few laps. As a team, we clearly struggle in qualifying when the tyres are new and cold, we struggle with the tyre warm up after the pit-stops, but we’re really strong when the tyres are hot,” said Russell.

Meanwhile, Hamilton believes that Mercedes will be fetching a win this season, despite Red Bull and Ferrari being better. Now, with 10 more races to go, it remains to be seen when will be that day.

Also read: Carlos Sainz went 2 hours without drinking water to reduce wight of his F1-75 at French GP

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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