George Russell explains steering issue that derailed his Las Vegas GP victory charge

George Russell has revealed that he was battling a steering issue during the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

After starting from fourth on the grid, the British driver crossed the line to finish the race in third, but a disqualification for Lando Norris meant he was classified in second.

While it was overall a positive race for Russell, he told the media after the race that he was fighting against a steering problem from the fifth lap, an issue which had also reared its head in qualifying.

“I had the steering problem again from about lap five, the same as I did in qualifying," the Mercedes driver explained. "I managed to drive around this and I got used to the challenges of this problem, and the pace looked quite good in stint one.

"Then, at the start of my second stint when Max Verstappen came out of the pits, I was like ‘right, I’m going to attack now’ to see if I could take the lead, and I grained my tyres, the front-right tyre. I said to the team ‘I don’t think I’m going to make it to the end on this tyre’, but they were confident considering the gap.

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"But every lap was so painful. I was going slower, and slower, and slower, and I was like ‘this is not fun.’ P3 was the maximum today, but other than lap 1, it just wasn’t an enjoyable race.”

George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images

Russell had been one of the favourites to win the race in Las Vegas after clinching the victory under the lights of the Strip in 2024, and while he wasn't able to celebrate on the top step of the podium this year, he found the positive in having a more all-round car.

“I think if you just take the average of this season – if you look at Singapore last year, we were terrible and we won this year, last year we were dominant in Vegas and we finished on the podium [this year]," he added.

"We’ve got a car that is better across 24 races, whereas last year, we had a car that was either exceptionally dominant or terrible. So we have a better car for a 24-race season. Unfortunately, we may not get as many highlights, but we get more points in a season.”

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