George Russell makes Mercedes grid penalty claim after Kimi Antonelli decision

George Russell believes that with the "benefit of hindsight", he should have taken his Mercedes engine penalty at the Italian Grand Prix, like team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

At Monza, Antonelli incurred a back-of-the-grid penalty for a fresh specification of the Mercedes power unit, but roared back from 19th to win the grand prix and open up a 66-point championship lead over Russell, who finished in second. 

Monza is usually where teams take their engine grid penalties owing to the nature of the circuit, meaning overtaking is somewhat easier than others, but Russell, who has confirmed he will also be taking a penalty of his own at some point, believes Monza would have been ideal for his own. 

The Briton is awaiting the introduction of Mercedes' ADUO upgrade to take his new unit, but still feels he should have taken a penalty at Monza.

"He had an amazing race, and it was a very unique circuit. I don't think anybody expected the tow and the slipstream to be so powerful," Russell told media, including RacingNews365. 

"When I got passed by Max, the next lap I gained 1.4 seconds just in the straight on myself, and obviously Kimi was up to P5, P6 just after a handful of laps, and you know the red flag was maybe slightly beneficial as well. 

"Yeah, I think he'd have still been in the fight even if he started on pole and I started second. I still think 30 laps into the race would have still been nose-to-tail, battling one another. So it was obviously with the benefit of hindsight that was the perfect race to take the penalty."

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When then pressed about his feelings over equality in the team with Antonelli, Russell was firm that he felt he was being treated equally. 

"Yeah, I do," Russell replied when directly asked if he felt "equal" to Antonelli.

"To be honest, in the race last week when he pitted, I initially thought I was on the right strategy, because in the strategy meeting in the morning, we said the fastest race, if you could, was to start on the hard and do no pit stop, and that was faster than doing a pit stop. 

"And I think the reality is he's performing better than me at the moment. And if I pitted and he stayed out, maybe he still would have won the race, maybe not. Who knows? And that is something I just need to just continue working on. 

"I think the last two races for me have arguably been two of my strongest weekends as a whole over the course of the whole weekend in this whole season. So I'm sort of pleased with that, but of course, I still need to keep on making some improvements. 

"I definitely need some luck, and I need some good performances, but it's not really something I'm thinking about because, as I said, right now he's performing better than me, so he deserves to be leading the championship.

"There's still a long way to go, but he's yet to have a bad weekend in terms of performance, so he's performing exceptionally well. 

"My performances are better, but if I want to win this championship, I'm going to need some luck on the way. But it's not something I'm focused on. I'm focused on driving faster and just finding more performance."