George Russell, Williams, Nurburgring, 2020

Russell: Raikkonen cost us chance to score points

2020 Eifel Grand Prix

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George Russell believes he could have scored the first points of his career in the Eifel Grand Prix had he not been hit by Kimi Raikkonen

The Williams driver retired from the race after being hit by the Alfa Romeo driver while the pair were fighting with Sebastian Vettel.

“It was obviously frustrating,” said Russell. “I actually overtook Sebastian in the chicane before, but he then got the run on me on the exit, which I don’t think was shown on the TV.

“[That] allowed him to have the DRS and obviously Kimi was behind. I was on the outside, I left plenty of space. But I think Kimi just locked up behind Sebastian and then lost the rear.

“Sometimes it’s racing, we’re all pushing hard and it’s not easy sometimes. But it’s frustrating because the car was feeling good and the way the race went I think we could have scored points. It’s all going against us at the moment unfortunately.”

Every driver apart from the Williams pair has now scored points this year. Russell said luck has gone against them in races such as today when retirements ahead offered them a chance to finish inside the top 10.

“I’m realistic and as nice as it would be to score a point or two or three, ultimately the car is not quick enough. We need to continue to work really hard to bring more performance to the car because we don’t want to be lucking into these events, we want to be there on merit. And ultimately that’s where we are at the moment.

“The likes of Haas and Alfa, things have just gone their way really in these races. They are no quicker than us and I don’t personally believe they’ve done anything better than us, things have just gone their way when there’s been these very specific opportunities and it hasn’t for us.

“There’s been a number of times when we’ve had really good races and finished quite high up the order relatively but there haven’t been five midfield cars break down which is the difference between scoring points or not.”

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2020 Eifel Grand Prix

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7 comments on “Russell: Raikkonen cost us chance to score points”

  1. Making points is not the same as scoring them.

    1. He has now 32 races without a point.
      1. Luca Badoer 51
      2. Charles Pic 39
      3. Max Chilton 35
      4. Brett Lunger 34
      5. Tora Takagi/George Russel 32

      This is starting to look like Hulkenberg/no podiums list

      1. José Lopes da Silva
        11th October 2020, 18:20

        No worries. None of those drivers, apart from Badoer stint in 2009, had career perspectives remotely near the ones of Russell.

    2. Making points is not the same as scoring them.

      Which is something he points out, if you read the article.

  2. Raikkonen was lucky to only have a 10 second penalty. He steered right into Russel after correcting for understeer. Desperation or age related reduced awareness of a car well alongside.

    1. He tried to correct the car to avoid a Seb spin. It’s obvious he didn’t intended to crash.

    2. Agree. At least he hasn’t reached the Coulthard’esque bitterness stage yet where people are just bonked off in anger, but then I doubt he ever will.

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