Russell reflects on ‘really disappointing’ retirement from home race at Silverstone

George Russell could not hide his disappointment after being forced to retire from his home event at the British Grand Prix, having earlier led from pole position on a day where he looked to be in with a chance of victory.

The Mercedes driver made a good launch from P1 on the grid when the race got underway and led from team mate Lewis Hamilton for the opening phase.

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However, Hamilton overtook to go into the lead on Lap 18 of 52, before the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri surged ahead of them both within just a couple of laps.

As the rain started to fall and the front-runners began to switch to intermediate tyres, Russell lost out to the Red Bull of Max Verstappen to then run in fourth, but further heartbreak followed when the Briton was called into the pits on Lap 34 to retire the car owing to a suspected water system issue.

Asked to sum up his feelings afterwards, a downbeat Russell responded: “Yeah, really disappointed. It was… Everything was under control at the beginning in the dry, then very challenging conditions in the damp.

“I started losing power and next thing I had to retire the car, so yeah, really disappointing.”

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Despite the unfortunate end to his race, the rest of the weekend had hinted at further progress for Russell and Mercedes, with the squad looking fast on Friday before locking out the front row of the grid on Saturday.

Sunday also ended well on the other side of the garage, as Hamilton took the win just one week on from Russell’s victory in Austria.

With that in mind, Russell was quizzed on whether it was too early to start looking at the positives from the weekend as a whole.

HIGHLIGHTS: Hamilton claims victory over Verstappen and Norris in wet/dry Silverstone classic

“I mean, for sure we’ll take the positives,” the 26-year-old said. “The car’s fast and we’ll have more opportunities, but retiring from any race is disappointing, let alone your home race. We definitely had a shot of at least a podium.”