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George Russell thought he was leading the Hungarian Grand Prix after an opportunistic but illegal pitlane manoeuvre that he had to correct on-track by moving aside for several cars.
The Williams Formula 1 driver was up to eighth when the race was red flagged on the opening lap because of the chaos at the first corner.
When the race was restarting and everyone except poleman Lewis Hamilton returned to the pits for dry tyres at the end of the formation lap for the full standing restart, Russell was seventh in the queue on entry.
But the position of the Williams garage at the end of the pitlane meant Russell could not rejoin the fast lane as it was filled with cars.
Instead of waiting and trying to filter in, Russell hesitated and radioed his team to ask if he could move to the front of the queue by using the empty space in front of him, known as the slow lane.
It is permitted to use both lanes in other sessions so Russell decided to commit to doing so, just before the team responded to say: “Negative.”
He jumped Carlos Sainz, Yuki Tsunoda, Nicholas Latifi and Sebastian Vettel as he was approaching the front of the queue just as Hamilton passed the pitlane exit and the light turned green – which allowed Russell to use his momentum to get ahead of Esteban Ocon as well.
That meant Russell was first on track behind Hamilton who would pit at the end of the lap to get rid of his intermediate tyres following a strategy call by Mercedes that proved incorrect – giving Russell the net lead.
Russell described what happened as “I saw an opportunity and I went for it” but Williams knew the move was illegal so told the FIA that Russell would be instructed to hand the positions back.
He led the train of cars until the chicane before backing off to let Ocon and Vettel through, then proceeded to move aside for Latifi, Tsunoda, Sainz and Fernando Alonso – who Russell had entered the pitlane behind but looked like he was going to jump in the pitstops.
Russell was left “feeling thankful” the FIA allowed him to hand the positions back rather than force a penalty but felt the move was justified in the moment.
“I thought I was leading the race at one point to be honest,” he said.
“It was a very odd situation we are having with everyone queuing up in the pitlane.
“In an ordinary circumstance you can overtake cars in the pitlane or you can pull out and race.
“I saw an opportunity and thought ‘screw it, let’s go for it’ because the risk versus reward far outweighed the risk.
“I’m really thankful to the FIA for just showing a bit of common sense, just to say ‘give those positions back’ because they could have come for me and given me a drivethrough. So that was great.”
Had Williams not taken the initiative to instruct Russell to hand the positions back – which Russell did swiftly and effectively – then FIA race director Michael Masi would have referred the matter to the stewards.
The order at the pitlane exit was significant because of the way the early rain and the scramble to switch for slicks meant the race played out.
While Hamilton was left on a recovery drive, the track position and time advantage given to those who pitted before the restart was vital.
Ocon went on to win the race ahead of Vettel, while the first seven cars in the queue finished in the points – including Latifi and Russell, who scored an ultra-valuable double points finish for Williams.
While Russell was unlikely to have held on to win the race, had he got away with his move in the pits he would probably have beaten Latifi and Tsunoda to finish seventh.
He said he “knew quite early on that maybe I shouldn’t have done that” because of the radio message he got fractionally too late from his team, but added “I wasn’t kicking myself because any driver in my position would have done the same”.
And he said in the brief moment he led the group after the pitstops, he did not think about a possible penalty and wanted to crack on.
“When the situation is done, you can’t change it so I just thought if I’m going to get a drivethrough penalty here, just get my foot down and pull a gap,” he said.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be a 20 second penalty or not, just go for it. And if not, I’m in the lead of the race and I’ve got to try and hold on.
“It was opportunistic. Sometimes that’s life and you’ve just got to go for it and when the reward is that high.”
