59 points behind Kimi Antonelli, George Russell could benefit from a unique opportunity at Monza. For Jolyon Palmer, he no longer has the right to make mistakes.
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George Russell may already be playing some of his last cards in the race for the world title. While the Briton is now 59 points behind his teammate Kimi Antonelli, the Italian Grand Prix could represent a decisive opportunity to finally reduce this gap.
The reason is simple: Antonelli will have to serve a penalty on the starting grid at Monza. Mercedes has decided to install a new power unit on his car, which will force the Italian to move back at the start of his home Grand Prix. A situation that Russell must imperatively take advantage of according to Jolyon Palmer.
A golden opportunity for Russell at Monza
Antonelli has largely reaped the benefits of Mercedes’ dominance since the start of the season and now has a comfortable lead in the championship. But his Italian penalty could reshuffle the cards for the weekend.
For Russell, the goal will therefore be to maximize this opportunity by finishing well ahead of his teammate. At this stage of the season, every missed opportunity would make a comeback in the championship even more complicated.
“Reliability will not be easy to manage at Monza,” reminds Palmer in the F1 Nation podcast, before being particularly categorical about the stakes of the weekend.
“If Kimi wins at Monza despite a grid penalty, he will be champion. I will even go that far.”
“George must win”
A victory for Antonelli despite his grid drop would, according to the former Renault driver, be a real psychological blow for Russell. The Italian would strengthen his lead while winning his home Grand Prix after having to climb back through the field.
“It would be an extremely hard blow. He would have won his home race with many overtakes and a lot of control, and that would drain George of all his energy if he was not able to take points back from him at Monza,” says Palmer.
His verdict is therefore clear: “George must win this race.”
59 points behind his teammate, Russell is obviously not mathematically eliminated from the fight yet. But another loss of ground in Italy would make his situation particularly delicate as the second half of the championship is now well underway.
Yet Zandvoort offers reasons to hope
The last weekend in the Netherlands did not allow Russell to reduce his championship deficit, but his performances can nevertheless give him confidence before Monza.
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The Briton notably beat Antonelli in qualifying, before taking pole position and then winning the Sprint. During the Grand Prix, his difficult start however prevented him from really capitalizing on this momentum.
“He knows that Kimi will drop back on the grid. He also knows he has a golden opportunity to confirm what was already a solid weekend at Zandvoort,” emphasizes Palmer.
Russell had the pace to beat Antonelli
The former driver even believes that Russell could have finished ahead of his teammate at the Dutch Grand Prix without his start difficulties.
“He outqualified Kimi, took Sprint pole and won the Sprint. Without his bad starts in the race, he might even have beaten Kimi at the Grand Prix.”
Palmer did not observe a sufficiently large pace difference between the two Mercedes to consider Antonelli untouchable. “I don’t think the pace gap was enough for Kimi to simply overtake him easily.”
The speed therefore seems to be there. It remains for Russell to convert this performance over the whole weekend, which he has not always managed to do since the start of the season.
“It’s now or never”
Antonelli’s penalty thus turns the Italian meeting into an opportunity that Russell can hardly afford to miss. A victory accompanied by a more distant finish from his teammate could revive his title bid.
Conversely, if Antonelli manages to limit the damage, or even beat Russell despite his penalty, the balance of power could become extremely difficult to reverse.
“So I think George will tell himself once again: ‘It’s now or never’,” concludes Palmer.
After showing at Zandvoort that he had the necessary speed to compete with Antonelli, Russell must now turn this promise into a result. At Monza, his teammate will start with a handicap: for the Briton, hard to imagine a better opportunity to revive his title race.
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