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George Russell grabbed his first podium for Mercedes this weekend at the Australian Grand Prix and Formula 1 fans were quick to wish the Briton on social media.
Mercedes driver George Russell was more than happy with his team’s performance at the Australian Grand Prix as he finished on the podium for the first time with the Brackley-based team. A P3 finish for Russell also meant that he took 2nd place in the current Drivers’ championship standings, albeit 44 points behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Nevertheless, Russell, who started the Australian GP in P6, felt that his Mercedes team took small strides towards a revival after a disappointing start to the season. Even Lewis Hamilton finished in P4 giving Mercedes the most points won by any team on Sunday.
Despite a poor start, Mercedes are still second in the Constructors’ standings. And Russell will be only hoping to get better as the season progresses even though they haven’t looked close to matching the pace of either Red Bull or Ferrari.
While speaking to reporters, Russell expressed his delight at finishing P3 and being second in the Drivers’ standings. The 24-year-old Briton initially claimed that the Alpine and McLaren may have been faster over the weekend but his team did a fantastic job to get the performance to its peak.
Russell said, “Here we are standing P3 (third position). I only just realised, someone just told me I’m P2 in the championship which is just crazy to think. We’ve got to be really proud of the job we’ve done so far with the lack of performance we have. We believe we can get there but it’s not going to happen overnight and its going to be a number of races before we start closing the gap.”
Fans on social media were also quick to react to Russell’s first podium finish in a Mercedes:
https://twitter.com/goldrussxll/status/1513134386513915909
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