Mercedes experienced two quite opposite results at the Formula 1 Hungarian GP. While Kimi Antonelli enjoyed another podium in 2026, George Russell had another complicated weekend in the season.
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As soon as the start was authorized, the Briton failed to get away and lost many positions. Needing to make a recovery race, he crossed the finish line in seventh place, widening the gap to his Italian teammate.
“It was another difficult race. We lost a lot of positions at the start, which ended our chances of fighting for the podium. We are still not absolutely sure what happened. We followed all the usual procedures, but the car did not behave as we expected. The anti-stall system kicked in and we dropped to the back of the pack,” he assessed.
“The positive side is that our pace during the rest of the race was strong and we managed to recover ground to seventh position. It’s not where we want to finish, but we still secured points. The first half of the season has been anything but smooth. I’m looking forward to this break so we can recharge our batteries and come back stronger after the summer recess. It’s been a rollercoaster for me so far, and I hope the second half of the year will be much better,” he added.
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The 19-year-old, on the other hand, was able to enjoy another strong performance and after starting in seventh, crossed the finish line in seventh, increasing his lead in the standings to 50 points over Lewis Hamilton. “It wasn’t an easy race today. It was very difficult to overtake, even when we had significantly better pace than the cars ahead. We knew it could be like that, and that’s what happened. However, we managed to build an advantage in terms of tire condition over the cars ahead throughout the race, which allowed us to reach the podium positions. Initially, I wanted to do a one-stop race.”
“It seemed possible during the first stint, but then we started to suffer from rear tire wear. We decided to switch to a two-stop strategy and, in the last stint, we had a very good pace. The Virtual Safety Car complicated things a bit, as Lewis (Hamilton) put on new tires and was right behind us, but we managed to secure third place. We had a much better first half of the season than we perhaps expected at the beginning. But that’s our situation now, and we need to keep moving forward, maintaining the pace and doing the best job possible. It will be an intense second half of the year, but we are ready for it,” he concluded.
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