Max Verstappen was “nightmare fuel” for George Russell in Baku, says Alex Brundle

F1 TV pundit Alex Brundle says Max Verstappen relentlessly hunting down George Russell in the closing stages of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was “nightmare fuel” for the Mercedes driver.

While Russell had built a commanding lead, the safety car neutralised the field and he found himself with Verstappen right on his heels at the restart. The Briton held on to win the Baku race by just 0.1 seconds, defending against the Red Bull driver.

During an appearance on the F1 Nation podcast, Brundle pointed to the pressure Russell faced.

“The other thing is you think George Russell’s got nothing to lose at this stage in the championship, Verstappen properly has nothing to lose apart from the opportunity to take a race victory,” he said.

“That is like nightmare fuel, seeing Max Verstappen skidding up, tapping walls on a set of soft tyres behind you, just desperate to make your life as difficult as possible.”

Russell admitted that the race “got a bit tense” in the closing stages. 

“It was a great weekend. Got a bit tense towards the end,” the Mercedes driver told Sky Sports F1. “Max was really pushing hard and our pace was incredible, the two of us, we were pulling almost a second a lap to everybody else.”

He added that a yellow flag on the final lap of the race almost cost him the win. “And then when that yellow flag came out, I backed off. And when I went back on the power, I had no turbo, so when I had no power, that’s when he almost passed me. So, yeah, great weekend all in all.”

Russell’s win in Baku closed the gap to his team-mate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli in the standings to 66 points. Antonelli leads with 302 points, Russell sits second with 236 and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton is third with 199 points.

We want your opinion!

– The Motorsport.com Team

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com