George Russell admits “one too many mistakes at key moments” may have cost Mercedes win

George Russell admits “a couple of mistakes” cost him and Mercedes a chance of potentially winning the F1 Canadian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver started from pole position and led the opening exchanges but was left to rule several mistakes and a collision with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri as he eventually had to settle with third behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.

It marked Mercedes’ best result of the season but Russell couldn’t help but feel like the team missed an opportunity in Montreal.

“It felt like a missed opportunity, to be honest,” Russell said during the parc ferme interviews.

“We were really quick at the beginning of the race on the inters, and then obviously Lando came through really fast, and then we jumped back onto the slicks, made a couple of mistakes out there, just pushing the limits and paid the price for it.”

The first of Russell’s big errors came on Lap 51 when the Briton ran wide at the Turn 8 chicane, allowing Norris to get back past him after he had overtaken his fellow countryman on the previous lap.

Russell then was forced on to the run-off area after an ambitious attempt to get past Piastri resulted in contact at the final chicane.

Russell dropped to fourth behind Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, but battled his way back onto the podium with a brilliant dive into the same corner in the penultimate laps.

“We had the pace,” he explained.  “Max was very strong at that point of the race. But then when we put the mediums on at the end, we were really, really fast.

“I think that mistake with Oscar when I tried overtaking him and I lost the position to Lewis cost us at least P2 and maybe going to fight with Max later in the race.

“But, you know, we'll take all the positives from this weekend. First podium, first pole position of the year and excited moving forward.”

Speaking later in the post-race press conference, Russell added: “I think if you told us ahead of this weekend, pole position and P3, we may not have believed you, to be honest.

“It was such a tricky race out there for everybody. You put a millimetre wide and you're off. I think for me, it was just one too many mistakes at key moments that cost us a shot of fighting with these two towards the end of the race.”