George Russell unable to complete major test after Singapore 'early bath'

George Russell has explained how he could not complete a test of F1's cooling vest in practice for the Singapore GP following his "early bath" crash.

About 20 minutes into FP2 under the lights, Russell lost control under braking for Turn 16, biffing into the TecPro barrier, ripping off the front-wing as he crawled back to the pits.

The Mercedes driver did not return to the track and thus was unable to continue testing the cooling vests in place for the weekend after the FIA declared a heat hazard, with the air temperature set to be over 31 degrees Celsius. 

However, after recounting what had happened with the crash, Russell revealed that the system was not actually functional at the time of the incident. 

"It was a bit of a weird one, to be honest. I'm not too sure what happened," Russell began to explain.

"I braked a bit earlier, went in a little slower, but then just lost the rear, but thankfully it went in front-end on and didn't do much damage, but obviously it was game over, so it is a bit annoying, and sorry to the team for that, but better [in practice] than [in qualifying]. 

"FP1 was challenging, but in those early laps, I had a much better feel with the car, and the pace seemed better, but we didn't complete any laps, so there was no real lap time on the board, if we took the sectors together, it felt better.

"It's not been our best Friday by a long way, but in Singapore, the track is always evolving, and there is a bit of rain in the air, so I'm not too concerned.

"I couldn't get [the cooling vest] working in FP2, I had the vest on, but it wasn't working, but it was a bit of an early bath for me, so onto [Saturday]," he said.