Russell shrugs off “weird” FP2 shunt as Mercedes resets for Singapore Saturday
George Russell’s Friday in Singapore ended with the unmistakable crunch of carbon and the first red flag of a chaotic FP2 — and yet, the Mercedes driver sounded far from rattled.
The Briton lost the rear under braking for Turn 16 in the evening session, a snap of oversteer tipping the W16 off-line before a lock-up sent him into the barrier. As is standard practice when a hit looks inevitable around a street track, Russell took his hands off the wheel to protect his wrists and rotated the car to go in front-first. He limped back to the pits without a front wing and with a puncture. Day done.
“It was a bit of a weird one,” Russell said afterwards. “I braked a bit earlier, went a little bit slower, and still lost the rear. Thankfully it went in front-end and didn’t do too much damage, but obviously, game over. Sorry to the team — better today than tomorrow.”
The accident was the first of two red flags in an FP2 that kept the Marina Bay marshals busy. Oscar Piastri ended up quickest amid the interruptions, while elsewhere there were incidents for others, including drama in the pit lane. Singapore, as ever, doesn’t give second chances easily.
For Mercedes, the timing wasn’t ideal but the mood wasn’t doom-laden either. The team spent much of FP1 on the medium tyre as it worked through a run plan, with Russell and Kimi Antonelli classified 11th and 14th respectively. It wasn’t headline stuff, but the early long-run work was intentional.
“FP1 was challenging, but in those first laps I had a much better feel and the pace seemed better,” Russell added. “We didn’t complete a proper lap, so there wasn’t a real time on the board, but if you stitch the sectors, it looked okay. Not our best Friday by a long way, but Singapore evolves a lot — and there’s a bit of rain in the air — so I’m not too concerned.”
That evolving surface tends to flatter patience and punish aggression, which is why Saturday usually looks very different to Friday here. Mercedes will have a rebuild to complete and a setup window to rediscover ahead of final practice, but with parc fermé not yet in play, there’s still latitude to chase balance and confidence on the brakes — crucial at the stop-start final sector where Russell came unstuck.
This weekend also brought an unusual variable: the FIA’s first Heat Hazard event, a trial response to the brutal conditions drivers have faced at several venues. Cooling vests were mandated for all sessions. The idea is sound; the execution, on Russell’s side at least, needs a tweak.
“I couldn’t get ours working in FP2,” he said with a grin. “I had the vest on, but it wasn’t working. Early bath for me anyway — onto tomorrow.”
Across the garage, Antonelli kept his rookie afternoon tidy as he learns a circuit that punishes hesitation as much as over-commitment. The 18-year-old’s Friday won’t make any montage reels, but quietly logging laps on a live track in Singapore is worth more than any time sheet sugar hit.
The bigger picture? Mercedes’ 2025 campaign has been about stacking small gains and avoiding unforced errors. A brush with the wall on a street circuit isn’t exactly on-message, but it’s also not season-defining, and Russell’s calm read of the data — weird snap, limited damage, reset — suggests the team knows what box to tick first. Fix the rear stability on entry, bring the soft tyre into the window when the track rubber comes to you, and then let Russell swing when it counts under the lights.
For now, chalk it up as a Friday reminder of Singapore’s bite. The lap time never comes free here, and the track always stops evolving faster than you do. Mercedes just needs to make sure its car does the same.
