Russell began second, however after giving house to Hamilton he emerged from the opening sequence of corners on the primary lap in fourth place, a place he nonetheless held on the finish of the race.
Russell admitted that latest frustrations, together with his first nook collision with Carlos Sainz in Austin, inspired him to take a cautious strategy, particularly when battling together with his team-mate.
“I knew I would not have been capable of overtake Max [Verstappen] on the surface,” stated Russell when requested by Motorsport.com about his first lap. “However having Lewis on the within I did not need to be too aggressive, clearly him being my team-mate.
“And finally that that price me and brought about me to lose two positions. So finally if I had managed to take care of place, I most likely would have completed second at the moment.”
Requested if he would have given the identical house to anybody apart from his team-mate, Russell stated: “Yeah, I feel it was extra in Flip 1 to be sincere, I’d have ordinarily simply chopped throughout or in Flip 2 I’d have run the driving force vast.
“So yeah, that is the way in which the sport works typically. I would prefer to assume it will have been the identical had it been the opposite method round. Perhaps, perhaps not, I am not too certain.
“However I’ve had a little bit of a scrappy final three races on my behalf, too many incidents, too many errors. And that was most likely an element of taking it too cautiously. And there is a stability in there someplace.”
George Russell, Mercedes W13
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Pictures
Russell admitted to some frustration concerning the technique he ran in Mexico. Early within the race he indicated that he wished to run lengthy on his opening set of mediums after which swap to softs, a selection used very efficiently by Daniel Ricciardo. Nonetheless, not lengthy after that message he mirrored Hamilton’s technique by going to hards.
“Numerous positives to remove from the weekend,” he stated. “It could have additionally been attention-grabbing to see how we carried out had we began on the mushy and gone to the medium, or even when we prolonged the medium and went to the mushy on the finish. That was what I used to be pushing for within the automotive. Every part’s simpler in hindsight.”
Increasing on the technique selection, he stated: “There was no actual thought of beginning on the mushy, however there was positively a considered extending the medium, and going into the mushy.
“I am not too certain, I feel we reacted to [Nicholas] Latifi and Lewis, they each put the arduous on and have been setting inexperienced sectors all over the place. However the arduous tyre simply didn’t work from lap two onwards.
“I feel usually this weekend Pirelli introduced too arduous a compound. So the mushy ought to have been a medium, the medium ought to have been the arduous, and the arduous was like an extremely arduous, successfully.
“So seeing Ricciardo’s efficiency is just a little bit disappointing as effectively, as a result of I actually felt like I might have continued on that medium at a superb tempo, and we might have been flying on the finish on that mushy.”
Russell made it clear on the radio that he wasn’t proud of the arduous tyres, however there was nothing that the workforce might do. In the long run he made a late further cease simply to safe quickest lap.
“I do not assume there was a lot frustration as such,” he stated. “You are simply attempting to place your level throughout, and while you’re on the market it is bodily demanding, and there is a lot occurring and also you’re battling the automotive, and it might come throughout in that method.
“However I used to be attempting to get my level throughout. I felt good on the medium. The tempo was wanting robust, earlier than Lewis pitted I used to be closing the hole. Once I was within the lead I used to be setting private bests.
“As I stated, it is really easy in hindsight, and maybe we must always have recognised that there was no method I’d have been capable of overtake Checo with the arduous tyre, and the one method would have been to place a mushy.”