British Formula One driver George Russell secured six points after a tough 2024 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit.

Strong pace in Practice

George and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team began the race weekend with a busy practice programme to assist in their understanding of the W15.  

After a strong Free Practice One, George finished the session in fourth, although later on Friday, inconsistent rain affected FP2. As a result of forecasted mixed weather for the remainder of the weekend, the team was reluctant to use its limited supply of Intermediate tyres, resulting in no laps being set by George during FP2.  

In FP3, George went straight out on his used Medium tyres from Friday and began working through a longer run on higher fuel.  

For the last quarter of Saturday’s practice session, George switched to a set of new Soft compound tyres and set the third-fastest time.  

WATCH: 2024 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX FP3 HIGHLIGHTS

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Top ten start for George

George placed 12th in the first Qualifying segment, securing his spot in Q2. Initially driving on a used set of Soft tyres before switching to fresh Softs for his second run, George placed seventh in Q2 and progressed to Q3 along with two new sets of Soft tyres.  

In the third segment of Qualifying, George had two attempts to set the best time. After a mistake on his final lap, he was unable to improve on his first time, placing ninth.

WATCH: 2024 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS

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A challenging race at Suzuka results in points

Going into the race, George was hopeful of being able to maximise his package to score the best possible result.  

The Brit started on Medium tyres from the fifth row. Following the opening lap Red Flag, he switched to Hards, providing some flexibility in the race strategy in that the team could attempt a one-stop depending on tyre degradation.  

After a challenging opening stint, including having some issues with steering vibrations, George pitted at the end of lap 22 for a second set of Hards and showed some competitive pace.  

As the race progressed, high tyre degradation meant that the two-stop strategy would be significantly faster, so George pitted at the end of lap 38 for Mediums. He came out of the pits in ninth place.  

Following this second pit stop, George quickly caught up to Oscar Piastri and Fernando Alonso. He made attempts at overtaking but was unsuccessful until the final lap of the race where he overtook the McLaren and secured seventh place and six points for the team.  

The 2024 F1 season will resume on April 19-21 for the Chinese Grand Prix.  

WATCH: 2024 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX RACE HIGHLIGHTS

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

We moved forward today and that was positive. The plan to start on the Hard tyre after the red flag was to give us the flexibility to attempt either a one-stop or a two-stop. It was good to have this freedom and ultimately, we ended up on the two-stop strategy as the one stop wasn’t working. We had a challenging opening stint but after that first stop, our pace looked competitive to those ahead.

It was an exciting race towards the end. It’s always nice to be attacking rather than defending, and it was good, hard racing. There was some contact with Oscar, which was a racing incident, but I was glad to get the position in the end. It’s close between the four teams behind Red Bull and qualifying is going to be critical at each race. Whoever starts ahead will likely finish at the front of that pack. We know we’ve got work to do and we will keep pushing. Hopefully a track like the one in China will suit us better.