Mercedes’ George Russell managed to get P4 at the F1 2026 Miami GP, once again losing points to his teammate Kimi Antonelli, who stays on top of the drivers’ championship. He ended up a whopping 43s adrift of his stablemate.
Russell had a difficult weekend overall at the Miami GP. After escaping the top 3 in all competitive sessions, he started P5 in Sunday’s race. The Brit stayed in place throughout the first lap chaos and he fought Piastri through the first few laps, taking 4th.
However, by lap 12, after the safety car, Piastri overtook Russell at the restart, stealing P4 back. Later, he pitted and fell back into a fight along Leclerc, Verstappen and Piastri.
By the end of the race, as his result was not looking so good, Leclerc dropped to 6th after a massive spin led to damage, letting Russell through to P4 on the final lap.
Russell discusses the incidents with Leclerc and Verstappen in the final laps
As the cars saw the flag, the FIA announced two incidents involving George Russell would be investigated after the race by the stewards.
One was a collision with Max Verstappen that damaged car #63’s front wing, causing the front wing on the W17 to spark in the last few laps.
About this, Russell said: “I don’t have any [opinion]. It was all quite aggressive into turn 1. But we’ll find out.”
The second investigation was for an incident with Charles Leclerc. Just before the finish line, Russell was able to overtake him, but not without a bit of contact at Turn 17.
On this collision, the Mercedes driver said: “Yeah, well, I mean, Charles had damage and he cut the chicane, so he shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.
“And then he braked really early, so I started to close the door to take my line and then he released the brakes. Thereafter, so again, yeah.
“There was sort of no issue in it, but as I said, he shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.”
Finally, The FIA ruled no further action for both the Verstappen and the Leclerc incidents.
“Pace was really poor on my side”: says Russell about his performance at the F1 2026 Miami GP
While his teammate Kimi Antonelli scored his third consecutive win, Russell struggled throughout the weekend to match his pace.
He was set to take P6, but the final lap chaos granted him a few extra points. On his P4 Russell said: “The result could have been worse. It is a very… it was a very tough race. Pace was really, really poor on my side.
“I’ve got some ideas. To be honest, I used the last sort of 20 laps as a bit of a test.
“For myself, I tried some quite drastic changes with my driving style and some of the differential and brake settings on my car and it improved things.”
Nonetheless, the Brit looks forward to the upcoming races after the small break:
“But I just can’t wait for the next races where it’s slightly more normal conditions. And yeah, no major causes for concern.”
After the Miami GP, Antonelli widened the gap to his Mercedes teammate. The young Italian rounded up to 100 points, as Russell holds P2 in the 2026 Drivers’ Championship with 80 points.
