20 November 2023 , 10:44
476
0
Jenson Button felt George Russell was treated harshly by the Las Vegas Grand Prix stewards.
The Brit picked up a penalty mid-way through the race for a clash with Max Verstappen. The Red Bull racer attempted an overtake on the inside of Russell, who clearly did not see the other car was there and turned into it. The contact did minor damage to both cars and tore of part of Verstappen's front wing.
It didn't hamper his efforts, though, as the Dutchman went on to win the race - his 18th victory of the year. Regardless, the stewards took a dim view of Russell's actions. He was given a five-second time penalty for causing the collision, which proved costly in the end as it relegated him by four places to eighth in the race result.
Showing his class, Russell took full responsibility for the mistake and accepted the penalty. "The incident with Max was totally my fault. I didn't see him. Totally in my blind spot going around Turn 11," the Brit explained after the race.
"I wasn't expecting the overtake there. You've got the long DRS afterwards. We were on course for an easy podium after. It was pretty straightforward. Recovered to P4, the five seconds knocks us down to P8. This season is one thing after another!"
Sebastian Vettel warns of looming F1 ban and is "very worried about the future"
Former racer Button, however, does not agree with that assessment. After studying the footage, the Sky Sports F1 pundit came to the conclusion that the Mercedes driver was hard done-by. "That was a really weird incident I think because it's a corner where you don't expect someone to come up the inside," he said.
"And for George, I don't know where he's going to go. I mean, he could have gone straight on to get out of the way but it's a really tricky situation that he found himself in there. But Max also was in a position that he felt like he had to go for it, so it's just one of those things. I don't think he deserved a five-second penalty, personally."
Hampered by the penalty and graining on his tyres, Russell felt a much stronger result had slipped through his fingers. He said: "It was just on the wheel cover. If anything, it would have helped my graining because it would have given me extra cooling.
"I think we had a few cuts in that tyre so we did the wise thing and changed that set of tyres. We recovered P4. Even without the penalty I would have been disappointed. We should have been on that podium. It would have been a nice way to end the season after such a disastrous one. This tops it off."