Pace, not pit spin Russell's key takeaway from Sao Paulo

George Russell says his pace in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix is his most important takeaway, despite seeing a chance to win the race disappear with a spin in the pit exit.

Mercedes wrapped up the constructors’ championship on Sunday courtesy of Russell’s fourth place ahead of Kimi Antonelli in fifth, but the Briton looked to be bringing himself into contention for victory before his pit lane error. Emerging from a stop for slick tires in third place, Russell spun in the pit exit and lost significant time maneuvering the car in order to continue, but wouldn’t let that overshadow encouraging speed.

“Incredible achievement from everyone in the team,” Russell said of Mercedes’ title. “We had four tough years to come through and take the championship is really, really great. Obviously, it was a bit of an up-and-down race. No idea what happened on that pit exit. Probably just took too much risk as I was seeing an opportunity to go for the win at that point. But it happened.

“Ironically, because that happened, I then didn't pit for another set of slick tires and it kind of put me back in the same position as I was before the incident. But it's the most important we got the championship sealed.

“It's been a very positive weekend in terms of my performance. I'm probably more happy coming away from the weekend because the performance was good. At this stage, I care more about the performance than I care about the result, because that's what's been my weak point. And the performance [in qualifying] was great.

“The performance on the soft tire was really great [in the race], but obviously I did make that mistake. But it probably would have been a very different picture if we'd have started P2.”

Admitting he paid the price for pushing too hard in the pit exit, Russell said he was expecting a strong end to the race when rain returned but was surprised by a lack of performance.

“We really don't know. I was quite excited when the rain was coming, but then Kimi and I had absolutely no pace,” he said. “So we need to understand why that was.

“There's maybe a small theory because we were the first onto the intermediates that even just on that out-lap on the driest track, you damage the tires and temperatures go up and you're in this negative spiral. As of now, that's the only explanation.”