Panic was evident as George Russell called for a red flag after suffering a massive shunt during the Australian Grand Prix, leaving him stranded in the middle of the track.
The Mercedes driver chased down Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso and looked to take sixth place in the closing stages. The outcome of that battle was shrouded in controversy.
Panicked George Russell calls for red flag
As Russell followed Alonso into Turn 6, the extreme speed difference in Russell's favor forced him out and Alonso lost control of his Mercedes W15 and crashed into the barriers, causing the car to return to the track and end up sideways on the track. I took a break. In the middle of the road.
Luckily, Russell was unharmed in the accident, but his body was shaking, his adrenaline was pumping, and he was in a state of panic as he feared what would happen to the cars that were due to pass through the area soon after.
Russell exclaimed as he appeared on the team radio. Red flag! Red flag! I'm in the middle of the truck! Red flag! Red flag! red! red! red! red! red!
“I’m in the middle! Red! Fucking hell!
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Although the race was not red flagged on the final lap, a virtual safety car was deployed to neutralize the Grand Prix and allow fellow drivers to safely pass the scene of Russell's crash.
The stewards' assessment of the incident was that Alonso was given a 20-second time penalty and three penalty points on his superlicence for “potentially dangerous” driving.
Stewards said telemetry showed Alonso lifted more than 100 meters earlier than on other laps in the race, braked slightly and downshifted at a point where he would not normally brake.
In response, Alonso claimed he had intended to slow down early to make it easier to exit the corner, but was slightly mistaken, resulting in “quite abnormally close speeds between the cars”.
And when discussing the incident with Sky F1, Alonso said: “I was focused on the front, not the back. During the last 15 laps, we had some issues with the battery and deployment.
“Yeah, he was definitely struggling a little bit at the end of the race, but you can't concentrate on the car behind him. He's fine. I looked at the car and got really nervous.”
The penalty dropped Alonso two places to eighth, but Russell's crash meant that neither Mercedes W15 took the checkered flag in Australia, with Lewis Hamilton having retired earlier due to engine failure.
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