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Immediately after the Safety Car restart, Russell attacked Verstappen into Turn 1, with the Briton pushing the Red Bull driver wide. While the stewards concluded Verstappen did not have to do so, Red Bull instructed the four-time world champion to return the position to Russell. In doing so, he collided with him again in Turn 5.
How much were Russell’s car damaged? “Enough that we felt it, but not enough that there’ll be any, even the hint of it when we show up at the next track. Just a little bit of rash from bumping into the other car,” Allison explained in Mercedes’ Race Debrief.
Before and after the other Mercedes car, Andrea Kimi Antonelli had to retire from the race and the Safety Car was called out, the Briton was chasing Charles Leclerc. Even after he made contact with Verstappen, Allison explained Russell was close to overtaking the Ferrari driver to finish on the podium
“Just not enough laps left in the race. A couple of laps more and it would have happened. But yes, we were quicker at the end of the race, quicker in that final stint, hunting Charles down for some time. But the Safety Car stymied us, then just not enough laps after the Safety Car cleared up to get to job done.”
About Antonelli’s DNF, Allison commented it looked like he an engine failure.”That’s true, and I think that’s stuff we’ve said externally already. We don’t know what let go in the PU yet. It’s made its way back to Brixworth. They’ll dismantle it, figure out what’s let go, work out what they need to do as recommendations for the whole pool of race engines, not just in our team, but also in their customer teams as well. And hopefully, we won’t see any repeat of it in the remainder of the season.”
