George Russell insists that his crash on the final lap of the Singapore Grand Prix is history and that it “won’t happen” again if the British driver finds himself in a fight for a World Championship in the future.
The 25-year-old Brit was pressuring Lando Norris for the second spot on the podium in the closing stages of last weekend’s race when he clipped the outside wall on the run down to turn ten, sending his Mercedes car flying straight on into the barriers and out of the race.
Russell’s crash promoted team-mate Lewis Hamilton onto the podium and left him distraught as the man from King’s Lynn fumed over the team radio. The British driver was visibly emotional during his interviews after the race as he came to terms with the incident.
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Speaking to Sky Sports about his struggles in Singapore, Russell said: “Sunday night, Shov (Andrew Shovlin) gave me a phone call and he basically said: ‘Don’t worry about it. The reason we were there and had a chance of victory was because of the amazing job you did the whole weekend, and the qualifying performance and the pace you showed.’
“So that gave me a lot of peace of mind, and I knew that myself to be honest. I knew that myself and I take pride in that. We went all in for the victory. We’re pushing ourselves above and beyond, every single lap.
“We’re going against the best drivers in the world, and on a circuit like that, you’ve only gotta make a mistake by a couple of centimetres and you’re off. Clearly got distracted or [had a] loss of concentration when that happened. I saw Lando touch the wall and I clearly just sort of followed him and did it even more.
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“So [it was] obviously disappointing to end in that way, but I’ve got to be honest, it’s history now. I’m here to fight for victories, I’m here to fight for championships. This year we’re not fighting for a championship, we want to go all in for a victory and make sure we secure that second place. But I can tell you, it won’t happen when we’re fighting for a championship.”
Russell’s current championship fight looks to be with Charles Leclerc and Norris in the battle for P6 in the standings. The British driver is now 71 points behind Mercedes team-mate Hamilton, who is leading the way in the battle to be named best of the rest behind Red Bull.
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