![\"Wolff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/XPB_1374220_HiRes.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGeorge Russell nearly missed the Azerbaijan Grand Prix due to illness. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGeorge Russell nearly missed the Azerbaijan Grand Prix due to illness. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
Russell skipped Thursday\u2019s media day and was excused from Friday\u2019s drivers\u2019 briefing as he struggled with his condition.<\/p>\n
Post-race, the Mercedes team principal admitted the situation was \u201ctouch and go\u201d in the early hours of Friday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was properly poorly,\u201d Wolff told Sky Sports F1.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Friday, it was touch and go in the morning. He himself said \u2018I\u2019m not sure I can make it\u2019 and then somehow you recover.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then, overnight, it got worse again every single day. I think it was a big push from him to even drive and then to perform like this is mega.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the uncertainty, Russell lined up fifth on the grid and executed a controlled, strategic race to climb to second behind Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n
By extending his opening stint and executing a precise overcut on Williams\u2019 Carlos Sainz, he secured Mercedes\u2019 first podium since Hungary and his seventh of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last couple of days have been pretty rough,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFortunately last night was my first semi-decent night and feeling on my way back up. I felt good on the hard (compound tyre), I was pushing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt confident and really attacked the pit entry, think I gained a lot of lap time there on the pit entry and that made the difference, so really happy with the result.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell admitted the physically draining weekend has left him looking forward to a rest, but he emphasised the significance of the result for both him and Mercedes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty glad when I saw the chequered flag, to be honest,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just happy with the results. For us as a team, trying to beat Ferrari in the Constructors\u2019, this was a good step towards that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teammate Kimi Antonelli also impressed, finishing fourth and registering his strongest result since the Canadian Grand Prix, with the combined effort helping Mercedes leapfrog Ferrari into second in the constructors\u2019 championship.<\/p>\n
Formula 1 returns on October 3-5 for the Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell nearly missed the Azerbaijan Grand Prix due to illness. Image: XPB Images Russell skipped Thursday\u2019s media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[77894,49,48,578,576,577,3024,1881,82,4503],"class_list":["post-160725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-azerbaijan-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-mercedes","tag-sports","tag-toto-wolff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}