George Russell uploads Lando Norris’ topless picture from the cooldown room after Bahrain GP

George Russell had an intense battle with Lando Norris for second place at the Bahrain GP, holding him off at the checkered flag with a brilliant stint on soft tires. After their duel in the desert, Russell shared a topless picture of the McLaren driver from the cooldown room.

Russell has been quite popular among Formula 1 fans for his topless pictures, with his close friend Alex Albon often sharing and critiquing his dressing choices. After the Bahrain GP, the Mercedes driver sparked some social media banter by sharing a picture of Norris, completely stripped off his race suit in the cooldown room.

The caption on George Russell's post on X read:

"🏆 P2 in Bahrain!! 🙌 Great work team, really great weekend!! Congrats to Oscar and Lando on the podium 👍"

Norris found out about Russell's post during the post-race press conference, to which the Mercedes driver replied:

"Yeah, I posted that photo of you.. sorry! [..] ladies will like that!!" to which Piastri added, "Sorry George absolutely stitched Lando up on Instagram, that’s great"

Oscar Piastri put together a dominant race, with no real competition over the 57 laps. Starting from pole, he delivered a flawless performance to win with a comfortable margin of 15.5 seconds, despite a Safety Car intervention.

Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and George Russell were locked in a tight battle for second place after the first round of pit stops. The Safety Car added more drama, with Russell switching to soft tires, Leclerc on hards, and Norris on mediums. On the final lap, Russell held off Norris’s charge to secure second place in the provisional results.

In the second half of the race, the Mercedes driver also battled various issues with his W16. An electronics issue bugged his transponder and steering wheel as he unexpectedly opened the DRS after pushing the radio button. He is under investigation for DRS infringement, and a five-second penalty will drop him to fourth.

---

Mercedes boss lauds George Russell's "unbelievable drive"

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff lauded George Russell's drive, which earned him a podium finish in Bahrain. He also highlighted that Russell managed his soft tires brilliantly, despite Lando Norris chasing him down on the faster medium compound.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 post-race, Wolff said:

"Him managing the system coming in and out while keeping Norris behind him is just an unbelievable drive. What he did secured a podium. On top of that, taking the soft for such a long time was also great between managing and then attacking when he needed to."

The Mercedes team boss also elaborated on the brake-by-wire issue on Russell's car, explaining that it is analogous to losing the power steering and adjusting your input for each corner. He showered praise on the British driver for managing the issue.

With three podiums in the first four rounds of the season, Russell occupies fourth place in the driver standings, 14 points adrift of leader Norris.