George Russell rues '50/50' Mercedes risk: 'It hurts me a lot'

George Russell was left to rue Mercedes' risky "50/50" British Grand Prix strategy, with his 10th place finish having "hurt" the Briton. 

It was a disastrous home race for Russell who opted not to take to the starting grid, instead diving into the pit lane for slick tyres. 

Heavy rain fell ahead of the race but stopped prior to the lights going out, resulting in Russell and others gambling on the track drying quickly. 

Unfortunately, whilst Silverstone did dry at a rapid rate, the early stages were spent behind a virtual safety car, before significant rainfall fell again, ruining Mercedes' strategy. 

The German outfit then gambled again in the closing laps by making Russell the second driver to return to slicks from intermediates, a decision which came too early. 

Russell span across the Maggots/Becketts complex when back on slick tyres, with him, ultimately, accepting that the Silver Arrows risked too much.

"I think it was a 50/50 call," Russell told Sky F1, discussing the decision to box for slick tyres at the end of the formation lap. "At the beginning there was 25 minutes of no rain, but we spent 15 minutes behind the virtual safety car. 

"As soon as we got going at the end, we were five seconds a lap quicker than the inter runners. But then the rain came. In hindsight, of course, it's easy to say we probably risked too much, and then, the last pit stop, I probably went too early. 

"I risked too much, but I wasn't expecting the hard tyre. Just a terrible day, hurts me a lot, to be honest, to have a day like that here at my home grand prix. 

"If we played it conservatively, we probably would have been, P3, P4, P5, it's better than where we ended up, but that wasn't what we were going for."