George Russell demands Mercedes talks after Lewis Hamilton Barcelona win | F1 | Sport

George Russell said he will seek answers from his Mercedes team over what he felt was the wrong strategy choice as they were outshone by Lewis Hamilton in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion showed supreme pace throughout and he converted that into a long-awaited first full-distance race victory as a Ferrari driver.

Hamilton was helped by the lucky timing of a Virtual Safety Car which helped him complete an overcut on the two Mercedes cars and take the lead of the Grand Prix. But from there Russell and his team failed to put up a fight as he faded badly in the latter stages of the race, finishing nearly 20 seconds behind his former Mercedes team-mate.

Russell had even slipped behind team-mate Kimi Antonelli, but reinherited second place when the Italian teenager suffered an engine failure. It meant Russell finsihed second and scored 18 points while championship leader Antonelli got none, which he took as a positive despite feeling his team had squandered an opportunity for a win.

Russell said: “Firstly, congrats to Lewis as well because he had a really impressive race. I don’t think we expected to see that sort of pace from him and Ferrari. It’s special to see him back on the top step.

“From my side, it was not straightforward. In hindsight, the three-stop would probably have suited my style a little bit better because I was struggling a lot towards the end of the stints. I’ll just take the positives away: It was a clean Friday, clean Saturday and I came away with 18 points. That’s 18 more than I’ve done in the last two races.

“Lewis probably would have come back through anyway, but without the VSC he would have pitted behind us and who knows what would have happened? I was just struggling towards the end of the stints. I need to review why that was.

“On the first stint I felt really comfortable on the mediums. I felt we pitted really early. Lewis had committed to the three-stop and we should have committed to our own strategy.

“It’s something I want to pick up with the team, because I was managing quite a lot at the start and still eking out that gap to Lewis, and then I thought we’d actually converted to a three [stop]. When they told me we were staying on the two [stop], yeah, that was a challenge.”

Russell remains third in the drivers’ championship but now only 50 points behind Antonelli, having begun the day 68 adrift. Hamilton is second and the gap between him and top spot is now down to 41 points. And while he knows it will be tough, he admitted after the race that he could use this first win to kick on and mount a title challenge.

He said: “I definitely will take it. It’s a long, long way to go. They still have great pace as we can see, but we’re going to keep working and trying to close that gap. It’s not over, for sure.”