George Russell admitted he was “looking forward to a bit of rest” having battled through illness and “bringing his A-game” en route to an impressive second place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Mercedes<\/a> driver Russell<\/a> missed media day on Thursday, and was excused from his media duties and the driver briefing on Friday and Saturday in order to best aid his recovery across the weekend in Baku.<\/p>\n Despite feeling under the weather, he was able to deliver a strong performance to take Mercedes\u2019 first podium since the Hungarian weekend having overhauled the likes of Carlos Sainz, Liam Lawson and team mate Kimi Antonelli \u2013 all of whom had started ahead of the Briton on the grid.<\/p>\n \u201cI was pretty glad when I saw the chequered flag, to be honest,\u201d said Russell. \u201cFortunately, I felt much better today than I felt on Friday and Saturday, so I\u2019m looking forward to a bit of rest now.<\/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 An extraordinary Qualifying session featuring a record-breaking six red flags<\/a> saw Sainz<\/a> seal an unexpected second place, a position he maintained throughout the first half of the race before Russell extended his first stint and completed an overcut pass on the Spaniard.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a really strong race,\u201d Russell added, reflecting on his day. \u201cMainly just staying out of trouble. I don\u2019t think we did anything spectacular; it\u2019s just a lot of people made a lot of mistakes this weekend, between Qualifying and the race.<\/p>\n \u201cIn normal circumstances, we\u2019d expect to finish ahead of Carlos, but he drove an amazing race, and I had to try and bring my A-game to finish ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n