George Russell has criticized the penalty he received during the Austrian Grand Prix after his collision with Sergio Perez.
The Mercedes driver made contact with the Red Bull at the opening lap of the race, which later caused the Mexican to retire due to the damage inflicted. Russell was then handed a 5-second time penalty.
“I’ve looked at the video and I think it’s harsh,” Russel said. “You are racing at the start, cars are everywhere. Checo did a bold move going around the outside like that.
“Obviously he’d done it before, he did it with Valtteri yesterday and Valtteri had to get right on top of the curb to avoid him, which is exactly what I tried to do.
“But with Carlos ahead of me there’s only so much you can brake and so much you can steer, and ultimately I had nowhere to go. Sorry to him to end his race.
“There was probably more room on the outside for him, and as I said I was doing everything I could. And as soon as he got to a certain point I knew it was inevitable, because I was already at the limit of my car.
“So it’s risk versus reward and he had this with Lando last year, it was very close with Valtteri yesterday. The move with me today was exactly the same as these other two, so it was one of them.”
