Race Report: Challenging Sunday in Austin

George Russell finished sixth with Kimi Antonelli P13 in Sunday’s United States Grand Prix.

George lined up P4 but was pinched on the inside of turn one, losing positions to the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

The difficulty, for the whole field, in getting close to the car ahead whilst also keeping tyre surface temperatures under control, limited the ability to regain those positions.

Despite a three-lap tyre offset after switching from the Medium to the Soft compound, he couldn’t trouble Piastri before the chequered flag came.

Kimi meanwhile, also running the Medium-Soft one-stop, held his starting position of P7 in the opening laps.

He was unfortunate to be turned around by the Williams of Carlos Sainz at turn 15 in the early stages and could only rejoin at the back of the field.

He fought back from there but his progressed was halted at P13 and he therefore finished outside of the points.

The battle for second in the Constructors’ Championship has closed up once again with Ferrari now seven points behind in P3.

The team now heads south to Mexico for next week’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

Kimi Antonelli

That was a frustrating race from our side. I felt good in the car early on, as I have done all weekend, and was looking forward to trying to gain some positions from P7. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be. I tried to leave some space for Carlos (Sainz) at turn 15 as I saw him coming. I managed to do so but we still made contact and that put an end to any realistic chance of scoring good points today.

It was a disappointing day, but we move forward. We head straight to Mexico now, and we have a chance to bounce back straight away. I’m hopeful we can do so as the Constructors’ Championship is close, and every point is going to matter.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

Our race was played out in the very early stages today. George was unfortunate to lose two positions when he got boxed in at turn one whilst Kimi was spun around at turn 15 a few laps later. Those setbacks cemented our finishing positions on a disappointing afternoon. That was due to the difficulty in following the car ahead whilst keeping tyre surface temperatures under control. That was an issue faced by the whole field, but it made regaining positions incredibly challenging.

Fortunately, we have the opportunity to bounce back immediately. We will dust ourselves down and look to perform more strongly in Mexico City. The battle for second in the Constructors’ Championship has tightened up once again after today but we’re excited to try and build our advantage once again next week.