Russell "the only decision" for Mercedes 2022 seat - Brawn

F1 managing director motorsports Ross Brawn believes Mercedes now has no option but to sign George Russell as Lewis Hamilton's team-mate for 2022 after the Williams driver's Belgian Grand Prix heroics.

Russell and Williams perfectly judged the wet conditions during qualifying at the Spa- Francorchamps circuit by making the right tyre calls throughout to secure an unlikely front-row grid slot.

The performance saw the 23-year-old outqualify both Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

"He doesn’t have a front-row car but in those tricky conditions in qualifying, he trounced people with far better cars than he had," wrote Brawn in his Formula1.com column.

"In my view, there is only one decision for Mercedes next year with regards to the second seat."

With the race lasting two laps, both of which were completed behind the safety car, Russell also claimed his first F1 podium and Williams' first since 2017.

"We all know George Russell has a fantastic talent," continued Brawn.

"We have seen it a lot at Williams, and we saw it amplified at Mercedes when he stood in for Lewis at the Sakhir Grand Prix last year.

"George’s performance reminded me a lot of Fernando Alonso when he drove at a wet Spa for Minardi in 2001.

"He was mighty impressive in a car that clearly was not up to the job. In those conditions, the ratio of the driver to car changes, and we saw that with George on Saturday."

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