George Russell voices relief after late Zandvoort sprint race danger

George Russell has expressed relief that the rain did not fall at the Zandvoort Circuit until after the chequered flag on Saturday.

Russell prevailed in the sprint race to add eight championship points to his tally, leading the race from start to finish.

Towards the end of the shorter race, drivers were told that there was a danger of rain, which began to pelt the circuit as the outing came to a close.

For Russell, it marked a sense of relief as it denied his rivals the chance to capitalise on a potential mistake in wet conditions.

“A great start to the weekend,” Russell reflected. 

“If there was one more lap it would have potentially been a very different end to the race, so I was glad the rain came when it did.”

While Russell was largely unchallenged throughout the 24 laps, Charles Leclerc showed strong pace on the soft tyre, promoting himself up to second place by the chequered flag.

As a result, Russell is expecting the battle for pole position to be a tightly contested affair.

“The Ferraris look really fast, so it’s going to be a tight one this afternoon,” Russell said.

“I knew if there were going to be any overtakes, they were going to be towards the end of the race. So, I knew I just wanted to manage my tyres a bit through the high-speed corners and have a bit more in the tank come the end of the race.

“I knew if Charles got past Lando at all, he would be fast. As soon as I saw Charles behind, I dropped the hammer a little bit and the two of us pulled away."