Mercedes’ George Russell says his Italian Grand Prix nearly ended in tears, after narrowly avoiding contact at around 340km/h when battling Red Bull’s Sergio Perez for eighth place.
Having damaged his front wing in an incident at the start of the Monza Formula 1 race, Russell was charging through the field after coming out in 12th position following his second pitstop, having swiftly overtaken RB’s Daniel Ricciardo and Williams’ Alexander Albon.
On lap 38, Russell attacked a very defensive Perez, who closed the door on the approach to Variante del Rettifilo and barely left a car’s width on his right. The Briton brushed the grass with his right wheels but made the move stick nonetheless.
He went on to finish seventh after passing Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, albeit 39.7 seconds off race winner Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).
After the race, Russell pointed out his tussle with Perez had been too perilous for comfort given the speed both cars were travelling at and the lack of margin left by his rival.
When asked by a reporter if he’d had fun with Perez, the Mercedes driver retorted: “I mean, fun? I'm not sure you can just describe that ‘fun’, because I thought I was about to go airborne when he was squeezing me at 340km/h. But yeah, hard racing and at least glad to make it one position.
“It was right at the very, very limit.”
However, Russell does not intend to talk the incident through with Perez: “There's nothing to say. We didn't crash at the end of the day, and I got past him, but half a centimeter more and it could have been a different story.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff added that the Red Bull driver’s defence “probably” could be considered as “a move under braking”, though it actually occurred before both racers actually braked for the chicane.
“Was there enough of a gap? That gap was tiny but still, the move came late,” Wolff insisted.
Perez finished the race eighth, with Russell leading him by 14.4 seconds. The two men are currently classified seventh and eighth respectively in the drivers’ championship, with 143 and 128 points to their names.
Additional reporting by Mark Mann-Bryans
