Russell's P2 at the Bahrain Grand Prix "one of the best drives" seen by Windsor "for a long time"
F1 analyst Peter Windsor believes that George Russell's P2 at the Bahrain Grand Prix was "one of the best drives" he had seen "for a long time".
The Mercedes drivers finished behind Oscar Piastri, but a brilliant drive while dealing with all sorts of issues, including an electronics problem, saw him keep Lando Norris in the other McLaren behind him.
That drive comes as the rumours surrounding Max Verstappen and Mercedes continue to grow, with Russell now sitting on 66 points, just six points behind the Dutchman in the drivers' standings, thanks to three podiums in four races to start the year, propelling Mercedes to second in the constructors' championship with 93 points.
Windsor never seen Russell "drive so well"
Debriefing the Grand Prix in the desert on his YouTube channel, Windsor was amazed at the job the Brit did to hold onto his second place.
"For me, George Russell's drive is one of the best I've seen for a long, long time in a car that was not as good as the McLaren," the 73-year-old started by saying.
"In the final pit stops, induced by a safety car, McLaren had the right tyre combination from the start. They started on the soft, then they went to two sets of mediums, a second set of mediums at the safety car. No other team had that. Everybody else had to compromise because they'd run out of tyres by then.
"In Mercedes's case, they went two softs on George's car, and it was a big ask. And of course, by the last five laps, George had lost his soft tire grip and advantage, any advantage he had at all. Lando was right behind him in a better car with DRS, with better grip on the medium tyre."
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However, it wasn't just the tyre advantage that McLaren had over Russell, as the Mercedes limped home towards the chequered flag in the final few laps
"On top of all that, George was having to deal with a dash problem, a sensor problem, an electronic problem, which manifested itself first in the timing where he's disappeared from the screens," Windsor explained.
"And then, from George's point of view, he started to lose gears as well. Big panic. But he went into a default mode, got the gears back, no problem. Hade the great comment, 'So long as the steering wheel doesn't fall off, I'm okay'
"But then, despite that, he didn't get past George. Unbelievably precise and effective driving by George in defence. In a way, I've never seen him drive that well in defence before. Just absolutely superb. Never put a wheel out of line in the places where it was late braking, or he had to get the car absolutely right on the turn-in position," concluded Windsor.
