‘Very silly mistake’ led to Russell sprint crash

George Russell says his crash from the lead of the Sprint at the Singapore Grand Prix was a “very silly mistake” as he pushed too hard on the opening lap.

Max Verstappen started from pole position but Russell immediately took the lead off the line in wet conditions on Saturday evening. Exiting the final corner, Russell then spun after touching the exit curb and hit the pit wall, before sliding back across the track to retire from the race.

“I just misjudged it, to be honest,” Russell said. “I came around the corner, I came on the throttle, I got more power than I was expecting from the battery, I went a little bit wide and then I touched a white line and you know, number one rule in the rain is don't touch the white line.

“It’s a very, very silly mistake. Overly confident. I think it’s my first crash of the year, [but] it’s annoying to happen from that position.”

Verstappen took the lead and went on to secure victory after Russell’s crash, and says he could see the Mercedes driver was close to the limit early on.

“He was sideways already a few times in that first lap,” Verstappen said. “So I think he was just pushing quite hard on the first lap already. And then in the last corner, he clipped the white line and then, of course, it did send him left into the wall.

"Easy mistake to make, I guess. Unlucky at the same time. But as soon as I saw him go, probably I was in the nicest position compared to the cars behind, because the spray, it’s sometimes really hard to see what's going on.”

The damaged Mercedes then needed avoiding by the cars that were following as it bounced across the track, with Charles Leclerc – three cars back from Russell at the time of the incident – admitting it was a slightly unnerving moment.

“It was a bit more sketchy for me because George started to then reverse in the middle of the straight, but then stopped,” Leclerc said. “And with the visibility as well as with the half SM (Straight Mode) open, I mean, we have the front SM in that part of the track, it’s always quite tricky. But yes, everything was fine. Just the visibility was quite poor, particularly on this part of the track.”