'Russell has shown that he has everything he needs to take the lead at Mercedes'

George Russell saw his victory go up in smoke, but according to Lawrence Barretto, Russell did win a little in Sakhir. He has now shown that he can lead Mercedes in the future.

Still a winner at Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton's absence was a heavy blow to Mercedes, but Toto Wolff wanted to fill that gap with George Russell. The Brit normally drives for Williams, but as part of Mercedes training, this was the ideal time to show where he stood. In that respect Russell was a winner after the GP.

''It may be strange that Russell is a winner this weekend, when he didn't win the race he could win, but this weekend was not about winning, but about proving that he has everything he needs to take the lead at Mercedes and he has clearly done so," said Formula 1 journalist Barretto in his column for Formula1.com.

Russell does nothing wrong

''He was only 0.026s off the pole and took the lead at the start. He lost his victory because of mistakes made by the team, but he didn't do anything wrong himself and that's impressive when you realise that he was told only a few days in advance that he would be driving for Mercedes''.

Despite the victory slipping out of his hands, Russell took his first points in Formula 1. ''He's finally gone from zero after two points for ninth place and another point for fastest lap. Of course he's upset he didn't win, but this is the start of something special'', Barretto concludes.