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Sakhir (Bahrain) – The young Briton George Russell demonstrated his talent at the wheel of a racing car by leading the two free rounds of the Sakhir Grand Prix, the sixteenth penultimate stage of the Formula One World Championship.
The 22-year-old Briton replaced his compatriot Lewis Hamilton at the wheel of a Mercedes, as a result of the absence of the world champion in the weekend race organized by Bahrain, after he caught the new Corona virus.
Russell has shown himself to be a promising driver by finishing the first free test session of the Sakhir circuit, which also hosted last week’s race, in first place against Red Bull’s Dutch duo Max Verstappen and Thailand’s Alex Albon, while that his “temporary” Finnish colleague Valtteri Bottas came fourth.
Russell repeated his superiority in the second session and again advanced to Verstappen by almost the same difference, while the third place was this time for the Mexican Sergio Pérez against the French Esteban Okon and Albon.
Instead, Bottas settled for eleventh place, which would put him in an awkward position if the result were to be repeated in qualifying and race tests.
Bottas realizes that falling behind Russell would be embarrassing, and brought this up this week saying, “Frankly, I didn’t think about what would happen if Russell beat me. In case I have to answer, I think that Russell beating me in this round will not be good for me, of course, especially if the race is normal, normal… ”.
“Of course, I must avoid that. But I don’t want to think about this method. I must find the necessary motives and incentives in a positive way. This is the approach I want to take in this round.”
Russell repeats his superiority and is ahead of Verstappen by the same difference, while third place went to Sergio Pérez.
The marked difference between the performance of Mercedes and the original Russell Williams team was evidenced by the two British team cars in the last 18th and 20th places through Canadian Nicholas Latifi and British interim driver Jack Aitken respectively in the first class, and then in the fifteenth and nineteenth places respectively in the second session.
It is the first time Russell has been a leader in free testing, qualifying or racing, as he enters the penultimate race of this exceptional season that was overshadowed by the specter of the emerging Corona virus and led to the postponement of its March launch. to July, in the last twenty-first place in the ranking of drivers without points this season.
Russell will be the third Briton in history to defend the Mercedes colors after Hamilton and Stirling Moss.
Russell has been a member of the Mercedes-Benz youth program since 2017 and was crowned Formula 3 Series 3 Champion before repeating in the Formula 2 category the following year.
Hamilton, who was crowned world champion for the seventh time, matching the number of German legend Michael Schumacher last month, won first place in the first race in Bahrain last Sunday, before it was revealed that he had a virus, Covid- 19.
And it seems that the British driver is suffering a bit, as revealed on Friday the Austrian director of Mercedes, Toto Wolf, saying that “he is not in very good condition with moderate symptoms”.
Wolf emphasized: “The Corona virus should never be underestimated. I trust that Hamilton will treat it under the supervision of honest and expert hands. That is the most important thing for us. But the first days of infection with this virus are not considered pretty.
