George Russell was left complimenting Mercedes after claiming his maiden Formula 1 race win in Interlagos at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Russell headed team-mate Lewis Hamilton to the flag in the 71-lap affair, handing Mercedes its first win of the season, and first one-two since 2020.
It came a day after the Brit had finished first in the F1 sprint to start from first on the grid for Sunday’s race.
“[I] dreamt of this moment for sure, many, many times,” he said.
“You never really know how it’s going to pan out and I think the race was well managed, everything was under control.
“I knew how quick Lewis was and when that Safety Car came out, I thought ‘this is going to be going to be very, very tricky now’ but put together a really strong string of laps.
Buy tickets
“The pressure loss was immense, but we’re so proud of the whole team.
“This progress we’ve made since the start of the year is just unbelievable and what a boost it’s going to give us going into next season.”
With Hamilton second and Russell taking both the bonus point for fastest lap and eight points for the Sprint, Mercedes added 58 points to its tally in Brazil.
It is now just 19 behind Ferrari for second in the constructors’ championship, while Russell has all but confirmed himself in fourth in the drivers’ standings.
The 24-year-old is 25 points behind Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez, who are tied for second, and the same figure clear of Hamilton in fifth.
A maximum of 26 points remain on offer in 2022 with next weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix the season finale.
Key to Russell’s success was his management of the Safety Car restarts, of which there were two en route to his win in Interlagos.
The first came in the early stages, after Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen crashed out, while a second late on made for a sprint to the flag when Lando Norris rolled to a stop with an electrical issue.
“You just have to go through the process and treat it as if it’s any other,” he said.
“There was sort of a moment in the race where I was looking a lot in my mirrors, you know, seeing Lewis there, but I sort of realised I just need to look forward now and the only way I’m going to win this race is by looking ahead, driving as fast as I can, make no mistakes.
“My engineer was on the radio giving me the gaps probably four times a lap and it was always between 1.1 and 1.3.
“It was only when I came into sector three on the last lap, and I knew we’d got it [the win].”
Russell asked over the radio whether he was racing Hamilton in the final stanza, to which he was told his team-mate was free to challenge him.
“Yes and no,” he said when asked if that response surprised him.
“We’ve always said that we’re free to race. Toto and the team have put a lot of faith and trust in Lewis and I.
“We’ve obviously had a few side-by-side moments throughout this year, and it’s always been respectful.
“I think we’ve got a huge amount of respect for one another,” he added.
“I just wanted to understand the position because if we weren’t, I knew how important that one-two was for the team, so if we weren’t racing, it was kind of like bring the car home.
“[If] we were racing, it was quali lap every single lap and you’re risking every corner because the laps just had to be perfect.
“Obviously happy to have won it that way.”
Discussion about this post