Russell congratulates Verstappen: 'Result was obvious for a while'

George Russell speaks of a difficult day at the Suzuka circuit. The British driver believes Mercedes did not get him to the pits for new tyres at the right time. He also thinks the crane truck incident should be looked at closely.

"We need to review and see what we could have done better today," opened Russell in his team's press release. "I think that stacking in the pit lane cost me positions, and that made it a frustrating afternoon, so we need to look at it and see what the other options were." Russell was driving not far behind teammate Lewis Hamilton, who also made a pit stop at the same time. As a result, Russell had to wait for Hamilton to disappear from the pit box.

"It was a strange afternoon overall: the conditions at the beginning were impossible, not with the grip but in terms of visibility and the amount of spray this generation of cars generates, and we need to learn the right lessons from the incident with the recovery vehicle on track while we were running behind the Safety Car," said the GPDA president.

Russell also takes the moment to congratulate Max Verstappen on his second world title: "And of course, congratulations to Max on his second championship; the outcome has been clear for a while, but he and Red Bull have done an exceptional job this year."