Russell Takes Responsibility for Singapore Sprint Crash

Mercedes driver George Russell accepted responsibility for a crash that ended his Singapore Grand Prix Sprint after heavy rain made the Marina Bay circuit particularly difficult to navigate. Starting second, Russell briefly took the lead before losing control at the final corner and hitting the pit wall, leaving his team to assess the damage ahead of the Grand Prix.

Russell had made an excellent start, passing Max Verstappen to move into first place. However, a sudden increase in battery power caught him off guard, and his right rear tire touched the painted white line, triggering a spin that sent his car into the wall and back across the track.

Reflecting on the incident, Russell acknowledged that his own judgment was responsible for the crash.

"I just misjudged it, to be honest. I came round the corner, I came on the throttle, I got more power than I was expecting from the battery. I went a little bit wide and then I touched the white line.

The number one rule in the rain is don’t touch the white line. It’s a very silly mistake – overly confident. I think it’s my first crash of the year.

It’s annoying to happen from that position." Russell said.

The crash was particularly costly because Russell was scheduled to start the Singapore Grand Prix from the back of the grid, making the Sprint one of his strongest opportunities to challenge near the front. He was also among several drivers caught out by the difficult conditions, with eight other competitors retiring, including McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris following their collision.

Mercedes Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord said the team would attempt to repair Russell’s car, although the extent of the damage remained uncertain. The work could involve replacing the rear section, the right-front corner and potentially the floor, depending on the results of the inspection.

Lord explained that Russell's starting position for the Grand Prix was already established, reducing the importance of his participation in qualifying if repairs proved impossible.

"There’s never been a Qualifying session we less need him to compete in, so if [the car] can’t be fixed, that’s okay because we know where he’s starting tomorrow regardless," Lord said.

The Mercedes representative remained hopeful that the car could be repaired in time, while expressing disappointment over the lost opportunity. He also described how a sudden power increase at the final corner contributed to the loss of control.

"We’ll try and get him out. We think it should [involve] swapping the rear end, right front corner and hopefully the floor isn’t too badly damaged. It didn’t look it, but you never know.

It’s hopefully not the only opportunity to get a couple of points – there’s still some on offer tomorrow. Super disappointed obviously. He had a great start, great first lap, pulled a second on Max and then unfortunately had a bit of a power surge as he came through the last corner.

You get the clipped power at full throttle, you get more power until you get to full throttle, and I think that surged. Then the right rear went on the kerb and it spun up. We saw what happened after that."

Lord said.

While Russell's race ended early, Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli recovered from seventh on the grid to finish fourth. The Italian benefited from incidents involving drivers ahead as Mercedes continued evaluating an upgrade package introduced in Malaysia.

Antonelli said the car felt somewhat better after the team tested several adjustments during the Sprint, although he noted that the upgraded package still operated within a narrow performance window.

"Yeah, I mean we tried some things and it did feel a little bit better. We will make some changes going into Qualifying and hopefully they will help us a little bit because the window seems very small where this package operates. We saw some good things last night and hopefully we can improve some things and extract the potential out of the package.

I truly believe that there is potential in this package. We just need to find the right balance and hopefully we can improve our pace." Antonelli said.