During Saturday’s sprint event, George Russell managed to overpower Max Verstappen in the beginning. However, Red Bull’s speed on the straight when it is open has been a focus of attention for rivals all season. After a resumption following a safety car period, Verstappen passed Russell on the run down to Turn 1. Although that move was done without DRS activation, Russell was in awe of Red Bull’s ability to maintain their speed. He said, “I think we believe we could take the rear wing fully off, and Red Bull would still be quicker than us on the straights, and that’s not even a joke… Something very, very trick. Kudos to them for whatever they’ve done to achieve this straightline performance.” Russell added that they don’t understand what Red Bull is doing to maintain such speed.
Russell Pleased with Mercedes’ Performance
On a positive note, Russell acknowledged that Mercedes looked stronger on Saturday in Baku than in Friday’s qualifying session for the grand prix. He stated that generally, the team performs better as the weekend progresses. They have seen this happen often last year, where they were a bit off the pace on Fridays but performed better on Saturdays and even throughout the qualifying session. Russell admitted that he was just on the wrong side of it in yesterday’s qualifying session. However, he was pleased that they were able to recover it today.
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