Mercedes F1 star’s ‘weird’ crash triggers red flag at Singapore GP

Mercedes F1 driver George Russell suffered a huge crash during FP2 at the Singapore Grand Prix, bringing out a red flag on Friday.

The Silver Arrows star looked to have carried too much speed heading into turn 16, suffering a snap of oversteer and slamming into the barriers with 42 minutes left in the session.

Russell's front wing was completely torn off by the crash and he suffered a puncture, with the amount of debris strewn on the circuit meaning that a red flag was called.

After his smash into the wall, Russell did manage to drive his W16 back to the pits but Sky F1's Ted Kravitz confirmed shortly after that the driver would not return to the session.

Russell confirmed he was okay after the incident, saying over team radio: "That was weird, yeah, yeah."

Russell's Singapore weekend suffers setback

Russell comes into this weekend off the back of a seventh podium of the season in Baku last time out, which propelled his Mercedes team up into second in the constructors' championship.

The Brit was feeling unwell throughout that weekend too, and said during Thursday's media day in Singapore that he was still not feeling 100 per cent.

The crash ruled Russell out of FP2 which meant that he did not get the same running as all of his rivals in a session that is the only practice session that is held in similar conditions to Saturday's vital qualifying session.

During the live broadcast, Sky F1's Anthony Davidson discussed Russell's crash, saying: "It looked like he lost the rear before he even turned in and that's why he's reporting that was a 'weird' moment to have.

"For him to be caught out quite as badly as that, you can never 100 per cent blame the driver in these modern cars with the way the hybrid systems work and the electronic brakes, so I will give him benefit of the doubt for now."

The session resumed after around four minutes, but not long after, another red flag was called after Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson slammed into the wall at the penultimate corner of the track.

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