George Russell makes Mercedes deployment claim after Piastri overtake

George Russell was not even looking in his mirrors at the point where Oscar Piastri appeared on his inside at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Russell described his initial race start as a “stinker”, and claimed that he had “no deployment” as Piastri‘s McLaren came through at the restart in Zandvoort.

Russell bemoans ‘no deployment’ after Oscar Piastri pass

While Kimi Antonelli was on the attack against a McLaren at the standing restart, Russell, in the sister Mercedes, was on the defence, even if he did not realise at first.

Into Turn 7, Piastri McLaren’s came surging past Russell’s Mercedes, and up into the podium places.

“I wasn’t even looking in the mirrors,” said Russell of that Piastri move in the Dutch GP cooldown room, after an eventual P3 finish.

“No deployment. I didn’t even look in my mirrors and next thing I just see he’s on the inside.”

Russell was joined in the cooldown room by Mercedes teammate Antonelli and Norris, who made it back-to-back wins in F1 2026 with his Dutch Grand Prix triumph.

“Which strat were you?” Antonelli asked in response to Russell.

“Four,” Russell confirmed.

“Same. It felt really weak into [Turn] 7,” Antonelli replied.

“When I went 7, it was a big difference,” Russell added after a nod of agreement.

“I was in 4 and it felt really bad going into 7,” Antonelli concluded.

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As a replay of the first start was shown, Russell, who had lost a position to Antonelli, responded: “Yeah, I had a bit of a stinker there.”

Also featuring in the replays watched by Norris, Antonelli and Russell were the crashes suffered by Max Verstappen and Gabriel Bortoleto on a damp track at the end of Lap 1.

Both drivers thankfully walked away unhurt from their respective incidents. Verstappen speared into the wall hard after losing control of his Red Bull on the banked final corner. Bortoleto triggered some rapid reactions from his Audi teammate Nico Hulkenberg to avoid what would have been a nasty collision.

“That was huge,” said Russell in reaction to Verstappen’s crash.

The “crazy” evasive skills of Hulkenberg also earned a collective noise of approval.

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