George Russell not surprised at how good Mercedes was in Hungary: "The car was really quick"

George Russell was satisfied with his result at the 2023 F1 Hungarian GP on Sunday. He managed to finish sixth after starting from 18th due to an unfortunate qualifying session.

Although it was not the best position that he would have wanted, the Briton was happy with his recovery driver.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the Hungarian GP, Russell initially stated that Mercedes strategists were predicting seventh as the best position that he could finish in. Hence, sixth was beyond his and his team's expectations.

"P6 was beyond expectations. The strategists were quoting P11 before the race and P7 if we maximized everything. Here we are in P6 ahead of both Ferraris, who started 12 positions ahead of us," he said.

Furthermore, George Russell praised the car for being quite quick around the Hungaroring. He also stated that it was one of his favorite circuits and that he was not surprised by the good pace.

"The car was really quick. This place is one of my favorite circuits, one of my best circuits, and as a team, we generally go really well around here. It's no surprise how quick we are today," Russell added.

Of course, the only thing Russell would have wanted was to have a good qualifying session and be right alongside his teammate, Lewis Hamilton. He explained how having two cars at the top would have helped Mercedes further solidify second place in the constructors' championship. Nonetheless, he was pleased with the overall result.

"It's disappointing because I believe we could have been right up there with Lewis yesterday. As as team if we have two cars on the front two rows, the dynamic changes totally. A small opportunity missed but I think we pulled points on P2 in the championship, so we will take it," Russell explained.

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George Russell was surprised to see McLaren's sudden resurgence

After the British GP, George Russell was quite surprised to see how quickly McLaren improved its pace in a few races. At the race in Silverstone, Lando Norris managed to finish second, while Oscar Piastri kept Russell behind him and finished fourth.

Russell was quoted as saying by ESPN:

"I don't know how they're found this much performance. It's been quite surprising. We don't tend to focus too much on our competitors. We just need to keep focusing on ourselves."

After the British GP, McLaren once again showed its new-found pace at the Hungaroring and managed a great result. It further solidifies its place among the top teams in the 2023 F1 season.