George Russell praises Mercedes bottom-to-top turnaround

Russell, Mercedes, Japan, 2022 — Photo: © LAT Images

Japanese Grand Prix

Russell praises Mercedes bottom-to-top turnaround

Russell recovered from FP1 struggles to finish top in FP2

Ewan Gale

Friday 7 October 2022 11:20

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George Russell has praised the turnaround performed by Mercedes between practice sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Briton was consigned to the garage for over half of FP1 after the team found an oil leak ahead of the session, triggering a power unit change.

When Russell did eventually take to the circuit, he finished a lowly 18th fastest, albeit completing just four laps.

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The Silver Arrows, however, made the intermediate tyres work in the 90-minute second session as Russell spearheaded a one-two with Lewis Hamilton, finishing eight-tenths of a second faster than third-quickest Max Verstappen in his Red Bull.

"It is probably not going to be that representative for this weekend but definitely good learning for the future," said Russell, reviewing his day.

"There is a chance on Sunday it could be wet but it looks pretty dry tomorrow.

"Nevertheless, it is always nice to end the day at the top of the timesheet. We have definitely made some improvements from FP1 as we were bottom of the timesheet.

"So not a bad afternoon."

Russell explains excessive running

Whilst many of the teams up and down the grid posted a lap time and retired to the garage for considerable periods, Russell continued to lap Suzuka throughout the session.

"It is good learning because you have to understand when you have that crossover," he explained. "It does pay dividends sometimes.

"We have not capitalised yet this year but there will be a race at some point... it may not be this year, next year or the year after, but hopefully we can capitalise."