George Russell was left to rue “two scrappy laps” after coming up short in a push for the podium at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver had a pretty lonely race in fourth after teammate Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso collided on the opening lap at Spa Francorchamps.
But with the Red Bulls scampering off into the distance, George did provide something to follow at the front as he closed in on Carlos Sainz for third.
However, a small mistake at Stavelot in the final few laps compromised his charge, ultimately meaning he had to settle for P4.
“A little bit mixed feelings right now because had you told me last night we would be two seconds off the podium on merit and pure pace I’d have probably said ‘yeah, that’s a good recovery’,” said Russell.
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“But when I was closing in at a second a lap, I thought here we go, we are in for a really good shot here, and then I just had two really scrappy laps and got the tyres out of the window.
“Unfortunately, in F1, tyres seem to be the only thing we ever talk about and when you are in that sweet spot, the car is just transformed.
“As soon as I lost it, I knew that was really game over [for the podium] but nevertheless P4, two seconds off the podium, not too bad.”
Indeed, after being 1.5s slower than Sainz in qualifying, Russell was much happier with the speed Mercedes showed on Sunday.
“I think definitely today our race pace was really better than the Ferrari,” he claimed.
George appreciation post. ?
Took the fight to the Ferraris today and nearly made it onto the podium. ? pic.twitter.com/VxQMh7WIDB
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) August 28, 2022
“Carlos was leading the first stint and we closed him in both times. So at worst, I think we are equal with Ferrari today.
“But as we know, it’s swings and roundabouts. But what is clear is Max is kind of cruising away.”
Russell though is keen for Mercedes to try and re-discover the single-lap pace he had in Budapest, where he claimed a shock pole position.
“Whenever we’ve had bad qualifying this year – other than Silverstone, for me – we’ve kind of made those places up in the first two or three laps,” he explained.
“Even though qualifying down in P6, seven, eight, it probably hasn’t compromised us that much when you look at the race picture and how things panned out.
“But for sure you want to have a slightly better morale on a Saturday night,” he admitted.
“When I compare Saturday night in Hungary compared to Saturday night last night it is definitely quite a different feeling ahead of the race.”
