拉塞尔为让安东内利升至第二的“公平”决定辩护
乔治·拉塞尔表示，让队友兼冠军竞争对手安东内利超过自己是正确的决定，这符合他的比赛利益。
乔治·拉塞尔表示，让队友兼冠军竞争对手超过自己是正确的决定，这将对两人比赛的风险降到了最低。
安德烈亚·基米·安东内利在晚段虚拟安全车期间多进一次站之前一直领先拉塞尔。当安东内利随后追近拉塞尔时，梅赛德斯下令两人交换位置。
拉塞尔服从了指令，尽管这让安东内利在两人之间的冠军争夺中净赚六分。这抵消了拉塞尔在前一天冲刺赛中取得的收获。
然而拉塞尔表示，让队友超过对梅赛德斯而言是正确的做法。
“我们一直说，作为一支车队，当我们采用不同策略时，我们绝不互相争斗，总是会交换位置，这一直是我们的规则，”他解释道。
“事实是，基米在虚拟安全车之前领先我，他尝试了不同的做法来保护我们车队。他基本上复制了法拉利的做法。”
尽管拉塞尔认为他有机会成功守住位置不让安东内利超过——正如他后来对刘易斯·汉密尔顿所做的那样，部分得益于另一次虚拟安全车时段的时机——但他也表示，试图防守可能会危及自己的比赛。
“我能把他挡在身后吗？也许吧。但同样也可能变成第五名。所以最终，你知道，他配得上第二名。我认为第三名对我来说是公平的结果。”
拉塞尔在比赛开始时落后于安东内利，随后被困在奥斯卡·皮亚斯特里身后，始终未能追回与队友的差距。“很艰难，”他说。
“第一次虚拟安全车出现的时机对我来说相当尴尬，因为我觉得硬胎上非常强。我认为基米和我的比赛有点相反。我中性胎阶段很艰难，他中性胎阶段非常强，然后我硬胎阶段很强，他则很挣扎。
“但那次虚拟安全车给了刘易斯一次免费进站，显然基米也进站了。从那时起，我知道自己会受到威胁。
“我在高速弯中管理得足够好，让我在第三赛段能够快速，并在进入一号弯（塔赞弯）时防守。所以我对那表现感到满意。”
英文原文
George Russell said letting his team mate and championship rival overtake him was the correct decision which minimised the risk to their races.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli ran ahead of Russell until he made an extra pit stop during a late Virtual Safety Car period. When Antonelli closed on Russell afterwards, Mercedes ordered the pair to swap positions.
Russell complied, though it handed Antonelli a six-point swing in the championship fight between the pair of them. That erased the gain Russell made in the previous day’s sprint race.
However Russell said letting his team mate by was the correct thing to do for Mercedes.
“We’ve always said as a team, when we’re on different strategies, we’re never going to fight and we’re always going to invert, and that’s always just been our rules,” he explained.
“The fact is Kimi was ahead of me before the VSC and he tried something different to protect us as a team. He kind of copy-pasted what the Ferraris did.”
Although Russell believes there was a chance he could have successfully defended his position from Antonelli – as he later did with Lewis Hamilton, thanks partly to the timing of another VSC period – he also said trying to defend could have compromised his race.
“Could I have kept him behind? Maybe. But equally it could have been a P5 as well. So, in the end, you know, he deserved to be P2. I think P3 was a fair result for me.”
Russell fell behind Antonelli at the start of the race, then got stuck behind Oscar Piastri and never managed to get back on terms with his team mate. “It was tough,” he said.
“The first VSC came at a pretty awkward timing for me because I felt really strong on the hard [tyre]. I think Kimi’s and my race was kind of the opposite. I had a tough medium stint, he had a very strong medium stint, then I had a strong hard stint, he was struggling.
“But that VSC gave Lewis a free pit stop and obviously Kimi pitted as well. And from there on in, I knew I was going to be under threat.
“I was managing enough in the high-speed corners to allow me to be fast in sector three and defending into turn one [Tarzan]. So I was pleased with that performance.”
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