George Russell reveals surprise candidate who overturned Singapore woes

George Russell said it was a call from one of Mercedes’ chief engineers that picked him up after his crash in Singapore.

The Mercedes driver is facing another race just a few days after his consequential crash during the last lap in Singapore which saw him go from an 11th podium of his career to no points at all.

Visibly heartbroken after the race, speaking to the media in Japan Russell said the incident was behind him and revealed who it was that got his head right.

George Russell reveals how long it took to get over Singapore crash

Ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, Russell was asked to look back to last weekend and the final moments of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Asked how long it took for him to get over the error, Russell replied with 24 hours and said who it was that helped him move on.

“It’s been pretty good to be honest,” Russell said of the process to get over it. “It probably stayed with me for 24 hours but I think in any moment of disappointment or failure or whatever you want to call it, you need to take the positives away.

“I had a nice phone call from one of the chief engineers basically saying ‘George, the only reason we had a chance of victory this weekend was because of the amazing job you did the whole weekend.’

“These things happen. We’re pushing ourselves above and beyond. We went all in for a win and a street circuit bites when you make a mistake by one or two centimetres, so I’m not going to let it affect me. It’s history and looking forward now to the rest of the year.”

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Russell has also been praised by Pedro de la Rosa despite the crash, suggesting that at least they were bold and went for the win.

“They went for the win,” he said on the F1 Nation podcast. “That’s the bottom line and they lost more than a second because they lost George’s car. They finished third, but only one car so I think they lost more.

“But I love the fact that they wanted to win. They went for a win. It didn’t work, but they were so close.”

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