Russell admits Mercedes does not fully understand “why the performance was so good”

Hot on the heels of his dominant display at the Singapore Grand Prix, Mercedes driver George Russell admitted that the Brackley-based outfit struggled to understand why its W16 was so strong on a track where it had not expected to favour its car.

Having grabbed pole position on Saturday, George Russell led off the line in Singapore. The Briton delivered a dominant performance in the opening stages of the race to build up a healthy lead from the chasing pack.

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris then looked much more comfortable as the track rubbered in, and Russell slightly struggled to get the hard tyres to work.

However, Verstappen could never get close enough to apply any pressure and he was able to secured his second victory of the season.

Asked whether he was surprised to see Mercedes display a race-winning performance in Singapore, Russell said: “I mean, I said it yesterday. If I were to make a list of all the races I thought we could win at this year, this would probably be right at the bottom.

“So I think we need to sit down tomorrow and Tuesday to sort of understand why the performance was so good. I hope we can carry this through to the rest of the season, but I think realistically, Lando looked incredibly fast.

“He was within a second of Max the whole race. And around this circuit, that's not easy. So, we'll take the performance for today, celebrate it, and I won’t think too much about Austin yet."