George Russell has explained how he was an unwitting victim in the Oscar Piastri-Carlos Sainz first-corner incident at the Belgian Grand Prix.
At the start, Piastri tried to pass Sainz up the inside of the La Source hairpin, but was squeezed against the wall, with the Ferrari suffering big damage to the sidepod and Piastri retiring on the first lap.
On the exit of La Source and on the run to Eau Rouge, Piastri slowed, with Russell's quick start causing him to lose out behind the slowing Australian.
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Russell's the victim
"It was very unfortunate in the beginning when Oscar had his failure," Russell told media including RacingNews365.
"I went to the left and sort of misjudged that he couldn't turn and got boxed in and lost four or five positions at the start.
"That kind of dictated my race. If it wasn't for that, I would have been P5 and would like to think I would have been there with Lewis [Hamilton] and Charles [Leclerc] fighting for the podium.
"Charles's [pace was maybe a bit of a surprise for us, we did not anticipate them being so quick, but we are in a good place in the teams' championship.
"That looks pretty secure for now, but we're just focused on trying to win a race this year."
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