“An actual shock, actually fighting tyre overheating,” stated Russell. “I used to be holding on to the entrance two originally, simply by a thread, after which the second stint I used to be pushing so laborious to stick with them and immediately my tyres bought method too scorching and I dropped off the cliff and I used to be dropping a second lap within the final seven, eight laps. P5 is the place we deserve to complete however the efficiency was fairly underwhelming in the present day.”
Regardless of the lack of efficiency, which left him 27 seconds behind winner Piastri, it continues a powerful run of kind for Russell which means he has completed fifth or larger in all 5 Grands Prix to this point this season.
Russell admitted {that a} lack of lengthy operating in apply could have given a false sense of efficiency heading into the race, with himself and the staff uncertain how the tyres would carry out within the night situations.
“This weekend was wanting actually robust, we did no laps in apply in the long term so I assume we couldn’t actually seize the truth that possibly we weren’t on the tempo, or we couldn’t seize what the potential issues have been going to be,” he added.
“It’s fascinating, we didn’t anticipate to be so good in Bahrain and we anticipated to be stronger right here and it turned out to be the other, that’s the character of this sport and everyone seems to be working laborious to attempt to discover extra efficiency.”