F1: Verstappen 'most nervous he's felt' when learning to drift cars

George Russell claims he “struggled to see” during the Dutch Grand Prix after making contact with Yuki Tsunoda at turn one. The Brit damaged his tyres while passing Tsunoda on the outside which he says led to “massive vibrations” in his car.

Five laps later he survived a close shave with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton that nearly ended his afternoon early. Russell was being tracked down by Hamilton for seventh place when the duo came over the hill at turn six and he put the left-side wheels on the grass turning into turn seven.

The change of surface caused him to slide sideways with Hamilton almost going into the back of him as Silver Arrows fans looked on in horror. Luckily, the 25-year-old recovered well but it wouldn’t be his day as he dropped all the way back to 17th place.

“I made contact with Tsunoda about five laps before and I had massive vibrations,” Russell said. “In the high speed [corners] I was struggling to see, looked a little bit my mirror, next thing I was off the track but kept it out of the wall.

“It lasted for about five laps, and I lost three or four seconds of race time. That was a shame because probably could have stayed ahead of Lewis, Lando [Norris] and [Pierre] Gasly who pitted later.”

Hamilton would do significantly better at Zandvoort, finishing 6th, after starting the race in P13. But a major blunder from the Mercedes team prevented both drivers from finishing higher up the field.

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After it began to rain in Holland, Russell and Hamilton requested to put on wet tyres to help with their grip but were instructed to stay out despite many teams opting to pit. The bad call caused Russell to fall behind as he fumed on the team radio: “I was forecast for a podium. F**k! How did we mess this up?”

Speaking after the race, an infuriated Russell, said: “The race was over before it really got started. I think the information we had regarding the weather was totally wrong. So that was a real shame. A podium was missed.

“As a team, we need to review because we’re getting the information coming in to us and it was misjudged the weather. So, it’s not anything to do with racing or engineering, it was clearly just a weather misinterpretation and that ruined our afternoon.

“So, we really need to look into what happened, why the others decided to pit, what information they maybe had that we didn’t and make sure we don’t make the same mistake again.”

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