Russell ha🦂d launched past pole-sitter Max Verstappen in the early exchanges in Melbourne but, when the Safety Car came out due to Al🐽ex Albon’s crash, Mercedes pitted their driver to provide hard tyres.

A red flag shortly afterwards meant Mercedes’ decision backfired and Russell eventuall🦂y retired with a power unit problem.

Mercedes chief technical officer James Allison explained: “Thꦅat early in the race it’s right on the cusp of whether a Safety Car stop is going to help you out or leave you worse off.

“When that happened, we chose to split our cars.&n൲ꦐbsp;

“We brought George in but left 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton out because at that point it’s very finely bala𒐪nced, whether you are going to get a beꩵnefit from the stop or not.

“By bringing one in and not the ෴other then ✃you are splitting your risk. It’s like an each-way bet.

“It looked post that de🐓cision that we probably did the right thing with George to bring him in, just from getting the best out of a cheap pit stop under the Safet𝓀y Car. 

“But all that was rendered completely null and void whe♑n the red flag was theღn pulled out just a few seconds later.”

Allison said about where Russell might have finished without his engine issue: “He was obviously a little ill-served by that red flag, he lost a ♉few slots on the grid instead of benefitting from the Safety Car stop that we hoped we would give to him.

“But he would have had a strong race. He showed goo🌱d pace all the way through the weekend, good in qualifyin🐽g, strong start, good race pace and was set fair for a good result even if he had been ill-served by the fortune of the red flag.”