George Russell has moved to cool any potential tension at Mercedes after the team implemented assertive team orders between himself and Kimi Antonelli during the Dutch Grand Prix. The pivotal moment came at Zandvoort as the race approached its climax, with Russell running ahead of his championship rival.
Antonelli, on fresher tyres and still holding an outside chance of catching Lando Norris for victory, was told by Mercedes to let his team-mate through. Russell was then left to fend off Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, both closing in with fresher rubber. Fortunately for Russell, he managed to hold on, aided by a late virtual safety car period.
Instead of harboring resentment, Russell understood the team's decision. "We've always said as a team, when we're on different strategies, we're never going to fight and we're always going to invert, and that's always just been our sort of rules," he said, as reported by Crash.net.
Russell also acknowledged that Antonelli deserved the runner-up spot. "The fact is Kimi was ahead of me before the VSC, and he tried something different to protect us as a team. He kind of copy-pasted what the Ferraris did. Could I have kept him behind? Maybe. But equally, it could have been a P5 as well. So, in the end, he deserved to be P2. I think P3 was a fair result for me," Russell explained.
The Dutch Grand Prix further highlighted the converging pace of the top three teams. McLaren continued their momentum with Norris's second consecutive win, but the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari was minimal throughout the weekend. While Russell lost points to Antonelli in the main race, he had trimmed the deficit by three points in Saturday's sprint, meaning the pre-event status quo was maintained.
Despite not being on the podium in recent races, Russell viewed the weekend as a positive step. "It's been a very positive weekend as a whole, and I've not been on the podium in three races or so now. Given the fact that we're nowhere near as dominant as we once were, this has been a very solid weekend all in all," he said.
He also highlighted his improved form relative to Antonelli. "I was not on the podium at times when we had the best car and Kimi was performing right at the very front. Now, the pace between the two of us looks very similar and that's a good step forward for me. It's been a cleaner weekend. I'm not dealing with as many issues as I've faced at the end of that first half of the season, and it's just allowing me to focus on the job," Russell concluded.
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