From bad to worse for George Russell: engine failure in Sepang has terrible consequences for Singapore
George Russell He is living a nightmare in a year where he started as a big favorite. The British driver was the one that everyone considered the first candidate to win the world champion title in the first season with the new regulations given the level of the Mercedes. However, it is being Kimi Antonelli the one that is surprising the world with the performance shown so far. What’s more, with each race that passes, he is getting closer to being champion.
And even more so after Russell’s engine blew in the final stretch of the Bahrain GP held in Malaysia this past weekend. The Briton was already losing points compared to his teammate, but it got even worse with Kimi’s retirement and second place. With only seven races left in the year, The Italian has an advantage of 84 points over the British.
And this will almost certainly increase in the Singapore GP this weekend. After breaking his engine at Sepang, Russell has run out of engines with low mileage and will have to change several parts of its power unit according to the British press. Therefore, in the absence of official confirmation, George will receive a penalty and will come from the bottom of the grill on an urban circuit where overtaking is not so easy. Golden opportunity for Antonelli to put even more ground in the way.
It should be remembered that Kimi himself already received a penalty for changing his engine in the last Italian GP, but it was in Monza where he starred in one of his best races in F1, if not the best. The Italian came back from 19th place to win the race and unleash the euphoria of the tifosi. It is difficult to think that Russell can repeat the feat at Marina Bay because the possibility of overtaking is much less than at Monza. Therefore, you will have to minimize damage.
NOr it is not at all unreasonable that Antonelli leaves with a hundred points advantage at the top of the general classification of this triplet. That is, you just need to start doing math to know when you will have the first match-ball. If his year was already fantastic, all he needed was for his great rival to have this setback with his engine.
