British Formula One driver, George Russell, showcased a fighting performance at the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix by battling to fifth place in the face of overheating issues in the deserts of Sakhir.

George entered the 2024 F1 opener following a promising pre-season testing programme and continued to build upon his already strong understanding of the Bahrain International Circuit throughout practice.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team driver ran solely on the Medium tyre in FP1 to set the seventh-fastest time, but continued to refine his performance in FP2, and by completing Qualifying and Race simulations on the Soft compound, ended the session in second.

A sixth place in FP3 served as a precursor to Qualifying where George displayed good one lap pace in Q1 and Q2 to contend for pole position in Q3.

George posted a 1:29.603 benchmark in Q3 to secure a provisional third but cemented his place on the second-row of the grid by improving by 0.118 seconds in his final run to the chequered flag.

In Saturday’s race, George secured a strong start and held third off the line but quickly started to apply pressure on Charles Leclerc and overtook the Ferrari driver on lap three by staging a bold, diving overtake around the outside of Turn Four.

Upon gaining the position, George set out to chase Red Bull’s Max Verstappen but started to face overheating issues on his power unit. He decided to pit for fresh tyres on lap 11, swapping his race-starting Soft tyres for a set of the slowery et more durable Hard compound.

George resumed the race in sixth but fell to seventh on lap 14 when he was overtaken by Sergio Perez, although he quickly returned to the podium places as the remainder of the opening pit window played out.

As the race progressed, George continued to lose time while managing his overheating power unit and was overtaken by Carlos Sainz Jr on lap 18 to be relegated to fourth.

George maintained this position over the course of his second stint and boxed on lap 31 for a fresh set of Hard tyres, rejoining the race in eighth but continuing to hold a net fourth.

On lap 46 of 57, George lost position to Leclerc by locking a tyre in Turn 10 and dropped to fifth but maintained the position to the line to score 10 points.

The 2024 F1 season will continue on March 7-9 for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

George Russell, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team driver:

“It was a strange day today. Both Lewis and I faced a similar issue. The power unit was overheating from very early on, so we were managing that throughout. It was a shame as we made a really good start. I managed to make a good pass on Leclerc for second but very quickly, I had warnings on my steering wheel. To manage the overheating, we were losing tenths-of-a-second per lap, and it was very difficult to hold off anyone behind me. It’s a shame that we didn’t get to show any real potential of the car.

"Thankfully, it’s not an issue we need to be concerned about. We got the cooling configuration wrong. We just need to understand why, and make sure we don’t do that again. It was simply an incorrect decision; we’ve got plenty of margin to cool the power unit more. I think without the issue we would have been in the fight for P3. It’s only the first race of the season so let’s see what we can do next week.”