"It was a tough pill to swallow": George Russell looks back on disappointing 2023 F1 Brazilian GP sprint

Mercedes driver George Russell said that the P4 finish in the Sprint Race on Saturday was a "tough pill to swallow" after he moved up to P2 in the opening laps in Brazil.

Russell had a perfect getaway from the starting position as he was able to overtake the pole-starting Lando Norris during the first lap battle after starting from P4. At one point, it looked like it might be a repeat of the sprint race from the last year when George Russell hunted down Max Verstappen to take the P1 spot.

His tires, however, had another plan for him, as the degradation did not allow him to challenge the Red Bull driver and in turn, pushed him back to P4 after Norris and later Sergio Perez passed him. Speaking with Sky Sports, George Russell said:

"It was a tough pill to swallow. It’s really quite confusing. Unfortunately, it’s always down to these tires and getting them in the sweet spot. Especially these last two weekends, nobody’s really understood when it’s working for them, and they’ve found a lot of performance, like Ferrari in qualifying last week, then we found our pace in the race and suddenly it wasn’t there for us today when we expected quite a lot."

"So I don’t know going into tomorrow. Right now, obviously, we’re not too optimistic, but conditions are different and that can totally change everything," he added.

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George Russell assesses his chances for the main race on Sunday

The 25-year-old Briton is hopeful that he and the team will learn from the Sprint race on Saturday and make certain changes to have a better Grand Prix on Sunday.

As per F1.com, George Russell said:

"It’s a shame but we clearly got it wrong today where others didn’t. We need to rectify that for tomorrow. The track will be a little bit cooler on Sunday which may swing things more in our favour."

"We will obviously learn things from today too and make some changes. It’s likely to be at least a two-stop race, but I’m not as optimistic heading into tomorrow’s Grand Prix as I was this morning," Russell added.

George Russell will serve his two-place grid penalty and will start the race from P8 after he qualified P6 in Friday's qualifying. However, if the problems regarding the tires persist, it would be difficult for him and the team to make any headway during the race and make further progress to challenge for podium positions.