The Mercedes team performed a rare pitstop error at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix. This ended up costing them dearly, as they squandered a potential 1-2 finish. At a time when Lewis Hamilton was absent, George Russell was well on his way to being a super-sub. Unfortunately, things were not meant to be, and he could only muster 9th fastest.

On the bright side, he finally scored his first points in F1. Admittedly, he would have preferred to win or get on the podium for the first time in his career.

Speaking after the race, he said, “I can’t really put it into words, to be honest. Jumping out of the car, it was a nice feeling to be honest. I’ve had races where I’ve had victories taken away from me, but twice?”

In all honesty, he was just in a state of disbelief; Russell insisted that he gave it everything that he had. He did his best to manage to race at the start, and he felt really comfortable. Moreover, he also managed to maintain a gap between himself and Valtteri Bottas.

George Russell opens up on the pit stop chaos

The Briton acknowledged that he could have caught up to Sergio Perez. Although he is gutted to miss out on an incredible performance, he was truly proud of what the team achieved. Looking back on the race, he admitted that it is a team sport and everyone is in it together.

He noted that everyone makes mistakes, and he wasn’t immune to that at Williams. There are also occasions when mistakes go the other way. However, the trick is to learn from your mistakes, especially since this was a late call. This loss at least had a silver lining – he finally managed to score points.

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Russell extended his congratulations to Sergio Perez. He knows that the Mexican driver deserves a race victory and he never really had the car under him. Russell also looked ahead to Abu Dhabi and admitted that his chances over there are fairly unknown.

For the moment, all that Mercedes, Russell and Bottas can do is sit and rue what could have been. From there, they can only get stronger from this setback and try to be stronger in Abu Dhabi.