Formula 1: Williams cost George Russell a top 5 finish in German Grand Prix

Williams cost George Russell not only his first career Formula 1 points but his first career top five finish in the German Grand Prix.

Despite the fact that ROKiT Williams Racing rookie George Russell has outperformed teammate Robert Kubica by a sizable margin throughout the first 11 races of the 21-race 2019 Formula 1 season, it was the rookie who watched as the 34-year-old Pole scored the Grove-based team their first point of the year in this past Sunday’s German Grand Prix.

After Alfa Romeo Racing teammates Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi were stripped from their seventh and eighth place finishes, respectively, via 30-second time penalties and dropped to 12th and 13th, Kubica was promoted to 10th from 12th while Russell was promoted to 11th from 13th.

But forget the missed opportunity for Russell to beat his teammate and actually score a point; Williams cost him a chance to finish in the top five in this rain-shortened 64-lap race around the 16-turn, 2.842-mile (4.574-kilometer) Hockenheimring road course in Am Motodrom, Hockenheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.

More from Formula One

Late in the race, SportPesa Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was running in 14th place out of 15 drivers still in the race. He made the “nothing to lose” decision to pit for slick tires under the race’s final safety car period, and he fell back to 15th. But after the race went back green, everybody else came into the pits as well.

Stroll was now the race leader.

Russell, however, believes that he could have been the race leader, and considering the fact that this strategy call for Stroll resulted in him finishing the race in fourth place, Russell very well could have finished in the top five; after all, he was running ahead of Stroll in 13th when Stroll made his race-changing pit stop.

But when Russell urged Williams to let him come to the pits for slick tires under this safety car period, they refused to let him do so.

Here is what Russell had to say about the matter, according to F1i.com.

"“Then at the end of the race I wanted to box to go to the slick. For some reason we stayed out but I understand the position the team were in, probably why we chose to do that, and you know everyone is struggling to keep on the black stuff.“We’re not in a position to throw something away like that. We were ahead of Lance when he pitted under the safety car and we didn’t, and he ended up coming out in second! So it proves we made the wrong choice.“The car felt really poor in all conditions. The worst thing was we had the opportunity to go onto slicks under the last safety car when I was ahead of Lance. I wanted to pit, but I probably wasn’t forceful enough to tell the team to pit for slicks. For some reason we decided to stay out and next thing, we’re pitting one lap later and Lance is up to P2. So it could have been so much more.”"

As stated above, Stroll actually did lead the race. What Russell is referring to is the fact that Stroll was passed by eventual race winner Max Verstappen of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing before he had the opportunity to officially lead a lap. He finished the lap on which he held the lead in second place.

Next. Top 10 Formula 1 drivers of all-time. dark

This is a very unfortunate turn of events for George Russell, who is now the only driver in Formula 1 who has not scored any points this season and most notably now trails teammate Robert Kubica in the driver standings despite the fact that he has outperformed him on every level throughout the year, perhaps by the most dominant margin of any teammate battle.

Home/Formula One