It was a weekend that promised much for British motorsport fans. In the World Rally Championship (WRC), Elfyn Evans was on the verge of becoming the country’s third title winner, while in Formula 1, rising star George Russell was handed a golden opportunity to prove his talents in Lewis Hamilton’s title-winning Mercedes-AMG.
Sadly, both drivers - and their fast-growing number of fans - were left disappointed. In treacherous snowy conditions on Rally Monza in Italy, Evans made a minor mistake that put his Toyota Yaris WRC off the road and out of the rally. In the Sakhir Grand Prix, Russell led most of the way before a tyre mix-up by his Mercedes team dropped him down the order. He then battled back into contention for the win, only for a puncture to end his hopes.
Both were crushingly cruel ways for their efforts to end. But while the end result was disappointment, both drivers can reflect that they demonstrated their undoubted talents at the highest level - and then showcased their class and dignity in losing with grace.
Having covered Evans’s career on and off since his first rally, I’ve been privileged to watch him grow into a world-class rally driver. But he truly stepped up this year, jumping from a solid runner into a driver capable of battling for wins against anyone. He was the equal of his team-mate, Sébastien Ogier, who after winning Monza is now a seven-time world champion. Few of Ogier’s team-mates have been able to battle him over the course of a season like Evans did this year. And one slip on one snow-covered road doesn’t change that.
Russell’s talent has also long been clear to those who watched him in the lower formula, or who watched him extract everything from a middling Williams in the past two years. He’s clearly had F1 race-winning talent: but there are many drivers who can’t realise that talent when given the opportunity to do so.
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Russell didn't win the race despite excelling all weekend.
Evans didn't win the championship, despite excelling for most of the season.
How very British.
Amazing drive by Russell, robbed of victory by bad luck, humbled bottas. Vettel, Bottas, Raikkonen, Giovanazi, Albon and Latifi it is time to retire, you are just not good enough
I feel for Albon, he's a cracking driver that for some reason the redbull car doesn't suit, it was the same for Gasly, neither seemed to get the car to work as well as when in the sister team.
Here's hoping Vettel can come back on form after a torrid Ferrari term.
Perez definitely needs to stay and most likely will, though nothing is certain.
Great race!,
Let's just say first, Russell lost the race to a puncture, second, the pit team dropped the ball and screwed up the chance of winning what was a thrilling race end to end, third, it really did show up how good Mercedes engines are, five of the top ten had them, and of course let's not forget to congratulate Perez on his first/last win maybe, going to hard to ignore him now, and Grosjean is sort of retiring ( apparently getting a private test in a Mercedes in January to access his driving after his bad accident), Bottas I feel might be joining Daisy in the top pasture next year, he's not improved really, and there's lots of new talent coming along from F2 next year,no,I think Russell and Hamilton would be a good match team wise, Russell would certainly keep Hamilton watching his mirrors.
Russell was super impressive, and had the measure of Bottas. He was only 5s in front when all the problems started though. Hamilton is often 20 to 30 seconds up the road from Bottas in the race. The track had a lot of straights, and I'd like to see Russell back in the car this coming weekend at a more challenging track. Very, very good start, and another showing like that would probably finish Bottas off in a similar way to Vettel, and be pretty close to Hamilton. Would Russell have won Turkey in those conditions? I suspect not.
Not doing down Russell at all, just needs more than one race to see where he is.