George Russell needs to throw everything he can at stopping — or even just delaying — Kimi Antonelli’s march to the Formula 1 title. That won’t be easy from the back of the grid at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Russell was third, with Mercedes teammate Antonelli ahead of him in second, when his power unit suddenly failed Sunday during the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, leaving him with a penalty this week for an engine change.
After that, this week it's "all-out attack, just trying to enjoy the weekend," Russell said Thursday. "Obviously not an ideal situation, but Singapore is a place I love and I’ll try and carve my way through the pack.”
He made a good start Friday by setting the fastest time in practice.
With the final sprint race of the season Saturday, Russell and his rivals will have an unusual daylight race on the streets of the southeast Asian city state, before the typical night race Sunday. Qualifying for the sprint race is later Friday.
Russell said Singapore was “probably the second-bottom of the list” in terms of the ease of fighting back after a penalty and predicted he may need to serve another for an engine change before the season is over.
It's a big contrast with the last time Antonelli had to serve a penalty. Mercedes changed his engine for the Italian Grand Prix in a planned move, calculating that overtaking was easy enough at Monza that he could limit the damage. He did far more than that and took a statement victory in his home race.
Russell fastest in sole practice session With only one practice session because of the sprint, Russell went fastest by 0.198 of a second from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, with Lando Norris third-fastest for McLaren, .298 off the pace.
Leclerc's teammate Lewis Hamilton was fourth, with McLaren's Oscar Piastri fifth and last week's winner Max Verstappen sixth for Red Bull.
Antonelli was seventh fastest, though his time was set on the slower medium tires. He went off-track into a runoff area late in the session.
Antonelli could clinch title in Texas Antonelli finished second behind Verstappen in Malaysia for his sixth podium finish in the last seven races, moving him 84 points clear of Russell in the standings.
With 33 points on offer across Singapore's sprint race and Grand Prix, if Antonelli scores 16 points more than Russell this week, he'd have a shot at sealing the title at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 25.
Norris may have a fix for his McLaren's straight-line speed problem, but this weekend could still spell the end of his title defense if Antonelli outscores the McLaren driver by 18 points. Leclerc and Verstappen could also be eliminated from contention.
Rain, haze, heat could test drivers Singapore is always a tough test for drivers because of the heat and humidity. This week, add in a haze of air pollution from forest fires in nearby Indonesia, too.
The haze was present last week in Malaysia, too. Singapore organizers said Friday they are monitoring the conditions but there are “currently no plans to modify our entertainment activities” around the race.
Cadillac's Valtteri Bottas has plenty of first-hand experience of the local conditions after cycling from Sepang to Singapore this week.
There's also a chance of rain affecting the action on Saturday and Sunday. Not only is a wet street track a tricky proposition, but there's extra scrutiny on the cars after a software bug on a wet track caused the start to be delayed in Malaysia.
The FIA says the software fix rushed out for Sunday's race is ready for use again in Singapore and a new version is coming for the United States Grand Prix.
