George Russell suffered a “weird” crash during the most important practice session ahead of Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix. FP2 on Friday was the only one of the three hour-long runs help under the cover of darkness and so always provides the best data for teams trying to figure out how their cars will perform in qualifying and the race at the Marina Bay Circuit.
However, Mercedes were not able to learn much about the setup Russell was using as he crashed out of the session. The Brit had only completed six laps when he lost the rear tyres at turn 16 and hit the barrier with the front of his car, snapping off the front wing.
Russell kept the engine running and was able to return to the pit lane under his own power. However, the crash brought out the red flags, stopping the session because the broken piece of front wing needed to be recovered and the barrier he hit required repairs to make it safe for others.
Though he had returned to the garage, there would be no more running for Russell who hopped out of his car which had too much damage to fix before the end of the session. That left him at the very bottom of the timesheets having not set a representative lap time before his accident.
Reflecting on his crash, Russell said: “It was a bit of a weird one, to be honest. I’m not sure what happened. I braked a little bit earlier and went in a bit slower but then just lost the rear. Thankfully, I went in front end on and didn’t do too much damage. But, obviously, game over. A bit annoying and sorry to the team for that, but better today than tomorrow.”
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Mercedes ended the day without having put a single push lap on the board at all on soft tyres. Kimi Antonelli ended FP2 down in 18th with his best time having been set on the medium rubber which was a full two seconds slower than the benchmark provided by Oscar Piastri in the McLaren.
But while Russell was aware that there is plenty of improvement to be found, the Brit said he was not overly worried about their performance on Friday. He said: “FP1 was challenging but in those early laps I had a much better feel of the car and the pace seemed much better.
“We didn’t complete any laps and didn’t put a lap time on the board, but at least the sectors together felt better. Like I said, it’s not been our best Friday by a long way. But in Singapore the track is always evolving and there is a bit of rain in the air, so I’m not too concerned.”