Shovlin praises how Russell approached weekend with Mercedes

George Russell missed out on the podium last weekend, but that was not his fault. The young British driver who came in for Lewis Hamilton could not have done better. He steered the Mercedes over the track in an unprecedented way, even though he wasn't comfortable in the car and didn't know all the systems yet.

With the race behind us Mercedes trackside engineer Andrew Shovlin has been looking back on last weekend. He was very impressed with the Williams driver's performance.

"So that was not a complete shock to me, it was kind of what we were hoping to see, and what we were pleased that we did see. How he handled the pressure, that's the harder thing to really predict, how he's going to get on. But that was very impressive, actually, he really attacked the session," Shovlin said on Autosport.com.

If you are given a chance like this, the risk of making mistakes is high and this can work against you. It was precisely that pressure that hung over Russell, but that is what he can deal with, he showed. "The risk - if this is one opportunity to show what you can do in a fast car - is it's so easy to get it wrong. And it's so easy to create lasting impressions."