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2025 FIA Formula One World Championship
2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Jeddah Corniche Circuit
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Sunday, 20 April 2025
Mercedes' George Russell is feeling confident for the future as he goes in search of a fourth podium this season at the
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday, April 20.
The Brit has performed consistently in the opening four races to stay in touch with McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the Drivers' Championship standings.
Russell claimed back-to-back P3's in the Australian Grand Prix and Chinese Grand Prix before getting his best result of 2025 with a P2 in the Bahrain Grand Prix - his worst race to date a P5 in the Japanese Grand Prix.
The 27-year-old driver held off a determined Norris in Sakhir to finish 15.499 seconds behind race winner Piastri to pick up 18 points which took him within six of Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen in fourth place, while Piastri and Norris are a further five and eight ahead of him respectively.
Russell revealed that it wasn't all plain sailing on the Bahrain International Circuit as he had to manage soft tyres for more than 20 laps on the final stint when his rivals were are medium and hards on top of Drag Reduction System (DRS) issues with his car.
"It felt all under control for a moment, then suddenly we had a brake-by-wire failure, so the pedal was going long, then it was going short... I didn't know what was going on... the steering wheel wasn't working properly," Russell said.
"It was really hard-fought to keep Lando behind; I think one more lap and he would have got me pretty comfortably. Nevertheless, I'm really pleased with P2.
"We were basically having all sorts of failures. We did an override on the DRS, and on one lap I clicked the radio button and the DRS opened.
"I straightaway closed it again, backed off, nothing gained, and I lost more than I gained - it was only open for a split second. It kind of goes to show the amount of issues we were having, but as I said, I'm really pleased with P2.
"For ourselves, it's been four races, three podiums, all on different types of tracks, so it gives us confidence going into the future."
2025 Bahrain Grand Prix results:
Winner: Oscar Piastri - McLaren
Second Place: George Russell - Mercedes
Third Place: Lando Norris - McLaren
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