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George Russell was left wondering quite which deity he had offended as he despairingly contemplated his retirement from the Canadian Grand Prix with a mechanical failure. Fortune, for good or ill, will always play a part but what also became clear in Montreal is that Russell’s teammate and championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, is going to be fearsomely hard to beat this season, whatever the circumstances.
Russell ground to a halt on the circuit Gilles Villeneuve on lap 30 after a thrilling battle with his Mercedes teammate that had ebbed and flowed. The British driver deserved better, the two had been exchanging the lead and going side by side repeatedly, inches apart and trading paint on one occasion, only for Russell’s efforts to count for naught as he went out not with a whimper when the systems on his car shut down due to battery failure.
His ashen face as he stood trackside afterwards said it all. The 19-year-old Antonelli went on to win and establish a 43-point lead over Russell in the world championship. A cavernous gap even with 17 meetings remaining as Russell acknowledged.
“Right now it’s his to lose,” he said in Canada. “He is so many points ahead. It feels like the gods don’t want me to be in this fight. But you know, the pressure’s off. Go out, enjoy every single race. Try to win every single race. I’ve got nothing to lose.
“It is, of course, frustrating, but I want to be in that fight. Hopefully, the luck will turn.”
It is understandable Russell feels he has not had the rub of the green. He won the first round in Australia but then in China had two technical problems in qualifying that were costly as his teammate took pole and the win. In Japan he was terrifically unlucky in the timing of the safety car which benefited Antonelli who once more went on to win, while Russell could manage only fourth.
He took both setbacks stoically, aware a long season lay ahead; his seven previous seasons in the sport and no little maturity allowing him absorb and move on from such setbacks with an eye on the bigger picture. Russell remained calm and good-humoured, unwilling to be derailed by events over which he had no control.
At the next round in Miami Russell was a little off the pace on a track at which he has never excelled but he took that too on the chin, accepting it did not play to his strengths Antonelli, however, won there too.
Canada was supposed to be something of a reset, a circuit which does suit the British driver. He had taken two poles in a row and won there last year. This was his fiefdom and a chance to reassert himself over his charging young rival.
Pole and the win in the sprint followed, then pole for the GP. However Antonelli was only a whisker from him in every case. They went wheel to wheel in the sprint as the Italian climbed all over him and he was only six-hundredths off in qualifying. The opening 29 laps of the race were the same. When Russell was leading, the Italian was nudging his gearbox, edging to the side at every opportunity looking for a way through. Given Antonelli could not escape the British driver when he did take the lead it seems unlikely that he was fundamentally quicker. There was simply nothing between them. Which prompted that fascinating fight but one notably on a track where Russell, the far more experienced of the two, might have expected to have the edge.
Which may be what ultimately concerns Russell more than the battery failure that finished his race. On this form Antonelli is every bit a match for him in sheer pace and it is allied to a fearless brio of youth that makes him compelling to watch. The Italian is impetuous and still prone to error – his lock-up when Russell passed him in Montreal could have ended both their races. But he proved in Canada he is a fierce and resolute competitor, one Russell is now required to repeatedly beat just to catch him.
The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, pointedly noted that Russell’s resilience and determination were two of his great character traits. In this title fight he is clearly going to need to draw deep on both.
