George Russell has highlighted his “shock” that a safety car intervention was not called sooner following the penultimate lap crash between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez. The duo came together on the straight between Turns 2 and 3 as they battled for the final spot on the podium. Mercedes driver Russell benefited from the coming together as he leapt from fifth to third to secure his third podium of the year. But when asked to pinpoint his most difficult moment of the grand prix, Russell replied: “Driving full gas into a wall of carbon fibre on the penultimate lap. That was pretty crazy. “The sun was coming down, you couldn't see anything. I was shocked the safety car or VSC didn't come out sooner. “The car could have been anywhere. As I said, I'm glad to see everybody was okay. It was a long old race, and I'm glad to be on the podium.” Russell was unhappy with his pace in the opening stages of the race before finding a boost in speed on the hard compound which helped put him in a position to stand on the podium. “Everybody was working so hard, and we had a really bad start to the race,” he said. “I was dropping off a lot. “But on the hard tyre, I think we were one of the quickest out there, and that was that was great. I got past Max [Verstappen], so an added bonus to stand on the podium.”
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