Jolyon Palmer says one F1 driver had torrid time in Mexico compared to ‘silky smooth’ teammate

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Former driver and pundit Jolyon Palmer has shared his thoughts on Mercedes driver George Russell’s difficult race at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Palmer was reviewing an entertaining Sunday of action at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on the Chequered Flag Podcast.

There were some clear winners and losers in Mexico City although there were no surprises when Max Verstappen took the chequered flag.

Ferrari would have been disappointed to only see one of their drivers on the podium after locking out the front row of the grid with a phenomenal performance in Q3 on Saturday.

They couldn’t keep Verstappen behind them going into Turn 1 and then Lewis Hamilton put in an excellent performance to finish runner-up.

The seven-time world champion had a very contrasting afternoon to his teammate George Russell.

Starting eighth, he was promoted up the order following Sergio Perez’s crash and managed to overtake Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri.

However, Russell had a nightmare second stint in Mexico and Jolyon Palmer thought he really struggled.

The Australian nearly retook sixth on the final lap and he was powerless to stop Lando Norris as he powered through the grid after starting from 17^th

Palmer thought Russell really struggled in Mexico

Alex Brundle and Jolyon Palmer were talking about Lewis Hamilton’s fantastic performance in Mexico and moved on to Russell.

The former Renault driver said: “Not least his teammate, [George] Russell was really struggling, ended up finishing sixth.

“He had Daniel Ricciardo on his gearbox crossing the line, they were only separated by about half a second over the line.

“Russell was nearly 30 seconds down on Hamilton today, so in a similar vein to Austin really, Hamilton I think drove superbly and had to be silky smooth on those tyres that was the gamble for Mercedes to try and get ahead of [Charles] Leclerc.

“It worked and then he finessed it to the flag.”

Russell himself agreed with Palmer that he had a very tough time in Mexico, especially the final 20 laps.

He wasn’t happy with the pit strategy devised by Mercedes although the red flag limited the damage caused by that.

After finishing above Lewis Hamilton in the standings in 2022, he’s not going to enjoy bragging rights over his teammate this season.

He’ll be hoping Brazil is once again a happy hunting ground for him after winning his only F1 race in Sao Paulo last year.