Martin Brundle shares the moment his ‘heart sunk’ during the British Grand Prix

Follow us on Google Discover

For Mercedes fans at the British Grand Prix, Sunday’s race at Silverstone was almost perfect.

After more than two-and-a-half years, Lewis Hamilton ended his wait to stand on the top step of the podium and earned his 104^th Formula 1 victory.

Mercedes got the seven-time world champion’s strategy right, pitting him on the correct lap in the first stint and putting him on the soft tyres for the final laps of the race that gave him the speed needed to hold off Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.

READ MORE: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

Although he was out-qualified by George Russell once again on Saturday, nobody at Mercedes would have anticipated a front-row lockout, especially given a few months ago they were clearly the fourth-fastest team on the grid.

While there was an awful lot of home pride at the British Grand Prix, Martin Brundle explained on Sky Sports F1 the moment in the race where his heart sank.

Despite the treacherous conditions throughout the Grand Prix with drivers having to decide whether to stay on slick tyres or switch to the intermediate, every driver managed to keep their cars out of the gravel or the barriers.

Unfortunately, Charles Leclerc and others got their strategy wrong in the race and Sergio Perez piled more pressure on himself by ruining his race weekend during the first session of qualifying.

However, it was the moment when Russell had to unexpectedly retire from the race that really disappointed Brundle.

After winning the Austrian Grand Prix the previous weekend, Russell appeared to have a great chance of returning to the podium at Silverstone.

Unfortunately, he could only complete half the race before being called into the pits.

READ MORE: Mercedes driver George Russell’s life outside F1 from net worth to height

Martin Brundle’s ‘heart sunk’ after watching George Russell retire from the British Grand Prix

Watching Russell return to the Mercedes garage, commentator David Croft said: “A technical issue, causing George Russell the polesitter to retire on lap 34, that’s just heartbreaking.”

Brundle replied: “He’s lost some kind of pressure, hasn’t he? Hydraulic or oil pressure, something like that because there’s no smoke coming out of it.

“It looks like he’s got a systems issue. Well, my heart’s sunk at that.”

Ted Kravitz then clarified that it was a water systems issue and after the race, Russell said, via the Formula 1 website: “I’m absolutely gutted. About 10 laps before I had to retire, I could see temperature alarms on my steering wheel.

“We had a water system issue we were battling and unfortunately, it won out.

“Congratulations to Lewis and the team though. He drove a great race and it’s a fully deserved victory. We’ve both been pushing so hard to help the team develop the car and it’s great to see that paying off.”

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Mercedes AMG F1 Team from team principal to lineage

George Russell could add further pressure to Sergio Perez despite British Grand Prix retirement

Although Mercedes will be delighted that Hamilton secured victory at Silverstone, they’ll recognise that they missed an opportunity to close the gap to Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship.

McLaren will be in a similar boat knowing that poor strategy calls potentially cost Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri the opportunity to secure a much-needed one-two finish.

Instead, Max Verstappen continues to lead the way for Red Bull and has picked up 119 points since the race in Miami, while Perez has only scored 15 in the same period.

That is less than any of the other drivers in the top eight of the championship and Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg.

It’s understood Perez has clauses in his contract that allow Red Bull to drop him if he’s not within 100 points of Verstappen or a certain number of positions in the championship.

Oscar Piastri leapfrogged him on Sunday and Russell and Hamilton are both within eight points of the Mexican.

Had Russell finished the race, he would have pushed Perez down to 7^th and made his position in the team even less tenable.

Mercedes might not want to put too much pressure on Perez as they may feel they have a better chance of challenging for the Constructors’ Championship if they retain the 34-year-old.