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Unwell Russell misses media day ahead of Baku GP weekend
George Russell was not present for media and engineering duties at the start of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend as he deals with illness.
The Mercedes driver traveled to Baku on Wednesday but was not deemed well enough to attend the start of the weekend’s activities in the paddock on Thursday. A team spokesperson said: “George is unwell so unfortunately won't be at track today, as he's resting up ahead of tomorrow's track action.”
Drivers are required to take part in mandatory media duties on a Thursday of a race weekend, and often have both engineering and marketing commitments before the start of track running on a Friday. Russell’s absence comes at the start of the flyaway rounds, with the final eight races outside of Europe.
Russell is currently fourth in the drivers’ championship, 36 points behind Max Verstappen and 31 ahead of Charles Leclerc in the standings.
FP1 begins at 12:30pm local time in Azerbaijan on Friday, and Mercedes is confident Russell will be fit enough to take part in the rest of the race weekend. Should he not be, reserve driver Valtteri Bottas is present in Baku and could step in for as long as he is required. The Finn is a former race winner at the Baku City Circuit, taking victory in the 2019 race.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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