George Russell fumes at “lawnmower racing” at start of Mexico GP
George Russell hits out at his rivals for their tactics at the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix.
George Russell has blasted drivers for their “lawnmower racing” at the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Both Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen took to the grass and cut Turn 2 after going four-wide with polesitter Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton on the run down to Turn 1 at the start of Sunday’s race.
Leclerc and Verstappen reemerged on track in first and third, but subsequently gave up positions to Norris and Hamilton respectively.
Russell had been looking to gain places but took a cautious approach to the first corner and feels he ultimately lost out for sticking to the race track.
The Mercedes driver felt his rivals had exploited racing standards in Mexico City.
“I don't understand how three drivers can cut the first corner and just continue in the position they entered,” he 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.
“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.”
The stewards took no further action on the Turn 1 incident, deeming it a first lap racing incident.
However, Hamilton was hit with a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage when he skipped across Turn 4 after battling Verstappen.
Russell felt Hamilton’s penalty was fair, but believes Leclerc and Verstappen should have also been punished.
“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,” he added.
“Obviously I was pretty frustrated, but it all stemmed from lap one.”
Russell ended up losing out to Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli and Haas’ Oliver Bearman during that chain of events. The Briton went on to finish sixth ahead of Antonelli.
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