JEDDAH, March 20 — George Russell offered Fernando Alonso a word of sympathy but added that he was glad to take home the third-place “silverware” yesterday after the Spaniard’s post-race penalty at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Mercedes’ Russell finished fourth on the track but moved up a place when Aston Martin’s 41-year-old Spaniard received a 10-second penalty.

Russell made a point of speaking to Alonso and said “hard lines, mate” but was still happy to claim the trophy awarded for a third-place finish.

“That penalty for Fernando was harsh. They deserved a podium finish today, but I’ll take an extra trophy,” the Englishman said. “I’m not complaining.”

Mercedes finished third and fifth but still far behind the commanding Red Bulls as Sergio Perez claimed his fifth career victory ahead of defending double champion Max Verstappen.

Mercedes once enjoyed similar domination, winning eight consecutive constructors’ titles.

“You’ve got to give credit to what Red Bull have done,” Russell said. “The gap is bigger than any since Mercedes in 2014. It’s a serious gap and everyone needs to work harder.”

Mercedes, who struggled in 2022 and took fifth and seventh in the opening race of this season in Bahrain, have changed direction with their car development.

“We’ve made the right decision over the winter and we can regain our pace quicker now,” Russell said. “We want to win races and fight for the championship.

“But, we’ve got to be realistic. We’ll focus on ourselves and get the fundamentals right.”

His team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, who finished a strong fifth, said: “We got some great points as a team today. George got third, which is amazing. I went forward, one foot in front of the other!

“I’m really grateful to have come from seventh place.

“The strategy didn’t work for me. The set-up was a bit off. If I had George’s set-up I would be in a better position. There’s lots to work on but we can take the positives.”

Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff, who conceded during the week that Hamilton might leave the team if it failed to improve its cars, agreed.

“I think we’d rather take one of those golden trophies than none, but I think we are seeing some performance gains compared to Bahrain, which is encouraging.

“But it’s going to be a long time before we can think about challenging the Red Bulls.” — AFP