Tempers were at an all-time high for George Russell and Valtteri Bottas following their big crash at Imola. However, Bottas was the calmer of the two and kept his head on his shoulders, displaying maturity. Russell, on the other hand, was very vocal about the incident and pinned the blame on Bottas. But after the dust settled, Russell realized what he had done and apologized to the Mercedes driver. Today, ahead of the race in Portugal, Russell felt it was necessary to clarify his reason behind the apology.

At the drivers’ press conference in Portimao, Russell hinted that the reason behind apologizing to Bottas wasn’t because he accepted that he was in the wrong. It was rather because he wants himself to be a role model for the youngsters that look up to him.

Russell said, “I think the actions I did afterwards were not my true self, I sort of went against my own instincts to walk away to almost show a bit of emotion, which was probably a very poor judgment call in the heat of the moment, which led on to a few more things later that afternoon.

“That’s why I felt like it was necessary for me to put that out on Monday morning, to apologize for my actions.

“Because I do want to lead by example, I do want to be a role model, and those actions after the incident were not leading by example.”

Can George Russell finally end his points drought at Williams?

After a terrible end to the previous race, Russell would have his mind set on righting the wrongs. Imola wasn’t the first time the Briton came close to finishing amongst the points for Williams. But yet again he was thwarted. Is it just a case of rotten luck? Russell would hope that this changes come Sunday.

The Briton has already demonstrated his prowess in qualifying on a consistent basis. Now he’ll desperately want to end his Sunday hoodoo. It’s been 39 races since Russell first stepped foot in a Williams, yet he doesn’t have a single point to show for his effort.

The only points he got were in Sakhir when he filled in for Hamilton. However, achieving a similar result with Williams would mean so much more to him. Will he deliver this time around if given a chance? We shall soon find out.

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