Mercedes has finally explained George Russell's nightmare launch in Hungary: his engine revs spiked unprompted as he sat on the grid, hitting the limiter before he could react. When the lights went out, Russell was lifting off the throttle to regain control—leaving him with barely 10% throttle demand. Anti-stall kicked in. He plummeted from sixth to 21st in seconds.
Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord made clear Russell did nothing wrong. The car betrayed him. What followed was a textbook recovery drive—Russell clawed back to seventh, picking off the field one car at a time through the opening stint. He even got unlucky with VSC timing late in the race; had it come one lap earlier, he could have stolen a free pit stop and finished higher.
Russell sits third in the championship heading into the break, 59 points behind Kimi Antonelli and nine behind his old teammate Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari. He salvaged points when the car tried to bury him. That's the sort of Sunday that keeps a title bid alive.
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