Yesterday at 09:15
George Russell has conceded it is difficult to understand F1's
current pecking order following Max Verstappen's dominant win at
Monza on Sunday. The Dutchman commanded the race from start to
finish, converting his pole position into a 19-second win ahead of
Lando Norris. It marked a rare occurrence this year that McLaren
was beaten on race day after winning 12 out of the 15 races that
preceded the Italian Grand Prix. Russell detailed that it is
difficult to draw any conclusions over the current pecking order,
as he also highlighted Mercedes' deficit to championship leaders
McLaren was smaller than usual. "It's difficult to understand the
sport at the moment," Russell told the media, including
RacingNews365 . "When you look at Verstappen finishing 40 seconds
off the win in Hungary and then winning by 20 seconds here, I
struggle to comprehend that swing of performance. "We finished 12
seconds behind McLaren in a normal race. That's a pretty successful
race. "Ferrari is strong right now, and Saturdays are really close
as well. So one-tenth faster or one-tenth slower on Saturday can be
one or two positions on a Sunday." Russell ended Sunday's race in
fifth place, having been unable to maintain his early-race pressure
on Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. The Briton acknowledged it was the
maximum result he could have hoped for. "It was quite fun at the
beginning, trying to get past Charles," Russell reflected. "They
just had substantially more speed in the straight than us, which
made it pretty challenging. From then on, P5 was the maximum."
