Russell ‘lucky’ to not be worse off after poor start in the Australian GP

George Russell says he feels lucky not to have been in a worse position after a lack of battery at the start of the Australian Grand Prix saw him lose the lead before recovering to win.

Charles Leclerc made use of Ferrari’s strong starts to take the lead into Turn 1 at Albert Park, climbing from fourth place to pass Russell on the inside into the first corner. The pair then engaged in a thrilling battle until Mercedes took advantage of a virtual safety car to pit both of its drivers and secure a one-two finish, but Russell says it shows a number of areas his team needs to work.

“It just feels like another race win, to be honest,” Russell said. “We’re race one into a very long season. Of course I want to fight for race wins week in, week out, but we’re all here now to fight for a world championship, and that’s what we’ve been working so hard towards.

“And if we want to do that, we still need to raise our game because there were a lot of areas today that we underachieved, mainly around the race start, having the battery in the right place, and we were lucky not to come worse off.

“It was a hell of a fight at the beginning. We knew it was going to be challenging. I got on the grid, I saw my battery level, I had nothing in the tank, made a bad start, and then obviously had some really tight battles with Charles, so I was really glad to cross the finish line.

“But honestly, thank you so much to the whole team because it’s been a long time coming to have this car beneath us and you can’t start off in a better way.”

In the fight with Leclerc the pair swap positions on multiple occasions, with Russell saying it showed the sort of competitive picture Mercedes had been expecting after pre-season testing.

“We had this suspicion that it was going to be a bit of a yo-yo effect, and as soon as one of us got in front it just felt impossible to hold it,” he said. “And obviously with this Straight Mode we lose a lot of the front end on the car, so we’re sort of just understeering a lot around these corners. So, I’m sure we’re going to have to improve that a little bit because it was a bit sketchy. But made it in one piece and just glad to be one-two.

“I think qualifying was a real surprise to us. I think the pace we saw today and the fight we had with Ferrari was more like what we were expecting and what we had predicted pre-Melbourne and after testing. Qualifying was a real shock, but Ferrari, definitely, they’re in the mix.