Russell stunned after Singapore crash: “A silly mistake with consequences”

Mercedes driver George Russell has missed yet another chance to close the gap on championship leader Kimi Antonelli. In Malaysia, it was through no fault of his own – engine failure. In Singapore, however, the Brit really messed up.

This is extremely frustrating, as the eight-time Grand Prix winner took the lead straight away with a textbook start, whilst Max Verstappen – on pole – was only in second place because his Red Bull Racing car didn’t get off the line well – not for the first time this season.

Russell looked set to secure eight World Championship points – with Antonelli only in P7 at that stage – but then everything went wrong.

As he approached the start-finish line, the Englishman’s right-rear tyre straddled the white line and the kerb; the rear of his car immediately skidded out, and from there he went sideways across the track, crashing hard into the wall on the left-hand side before the battered car veered back to the right.

Mercedes are now working feverishly to repair the car in time for the GP qualifying session. The technicians really don’t like side-impact collisions, as they can cause a gearbox to fail in the blink of an eye.

Topic of the week

A stuttering start to the Bahrain Grand Prix: the FIA narrowly avoids a fiasco like the one in Indianapolis in 2005

Fans could hardly believe their eyes at what they witnessed at the Bahrain Grand Prix: cars crawling along, racing cars that simply came to a standstill. The FIA narrowly avoided a fiasco like the one at Indy in 2005.

Mathias Brunner

Read More

TV Program

Tomorrow

Singapur: Rennen Re-Live

FIA Formula One World Championship

11.10.2026 - 18:00

Russell groaned over the radio: “Oh, no – sorry, sorry, sorry.”

Afterwards, the 28-year-old explained: “That was a massive misjudgement on my part. I came round the corner, the battery delivered more power than I’d expected, which caused the car to slide out over the front wheels; I ended up on the white line, and from there the spin was unavoidable.”

“It’s extremely frustrating – a small, silly mistake with major consequences.”

Bradley Lord, Mercedes’ deputy team principal: “On a wet track, these cars are even harder to control; George was caught out by the power delivery from the power unit, he hit the kerb, and then the rear end spun out of control.”

Further back, Kimi Antonelli benefited from the collision between the two McLaren drivers and said ‘grazie’ for fourth place – extending his World Championship lead over Russell to 89 points.