George Russell said he was “shocked” by the call to continue as the weather worsened at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday.

The rain hit hard midway through a thrilling race, Russell took the lead from Lando Norris and led the first part of the Grand Prix before his stop, which was eventually called out on lap 32 following Franco Colapinto’s crash.

George Russell was “shocked” by the decision to continue the race in wet conditions

As the race continued as the weather worsened, several drivers chose to switch to full wet tires in Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda, with Red Bull and VCARB drivers take a few seconds to stay on the intermediates.

An eventual top three of Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly stayed out until the red flag was finally called, but the Safety Car was stopped beforehand as the worst of the rain was over the track – Colapinto crashed under Safety Car conditions to draw the red flag.

That stop gave the drivers free choice of tyres, with the Mercedes driver expressing his frustration at not being left out believing that a yellow or red flag would eventually come – although he said he and the team were “in it together” when it comes to to strategy calls.

But given that he was unable to stay on the throttle at the start/finish left-right bend and with poor visibility as the weather worsened, Russell expressed surprise that proceedings were now being stopped earlier.

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“I was shocked, to be honest,” Russell told him Sky F1 after the race.

“I mean, we could barely hold, like I couldn’t keep my foot on the gas in the straight line.

“The car was aquaplaning, exceptionally dangerous for those two laps, but they like the action I think.”

As for Russell, he was the best placed of those who stopped before the red flag, with Lando Norris admitting after the race that his compatriot was potentially the deserving winner on Sunday – although Verstappen’s rise from 17th on the grid for the victory was a dramatic one. .

Explaining his initial concern about not being left out to benefit from the same ‘free’ choice of tires as those ahead of him, Russell gave an insight into the team’s processes in this area in wet racing.

“You know, we’re in this together as a team and we would have already taken 4th place before the weekend,” he added.

“We’ll get through this. Sometimes it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen, everyone is doing their best and making the best calls with the information available.

“Normally when it’s dry it’s the team’s call to say ‘let’s go to slicks’, when it’s wet it’s normally the driver’s call to say slicks to inter or inters to wet.

“I was pretty, well, I was really confident there was going to be a Safety Car or a red flag because it was like driving a boat.”

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