George Russell finished third during Saturday’s opening race of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship’s visit to the Nurburgring, but admitted it is never nice to inherit positions through other driver’s misfortunes.
The Hitech GP driver was running in fourth position after a good start when Nick Cassidy, at that time running in second for Prema Powerteam, had a brief technical issue that forced him to slow momentarily, allowing both Maximilian Günther and Russell through.
But Russell admitted that it is not the way he would want to gain positions, and felt for Cassidy, who recovered and ultimately finished fourth, behind Russell.
“My start was good, but I couldn’t get up any further than fourth place,” said Russell on fiaf3europe.com. “When Nick then had his technical issues, I was able to overtake him and pick up third place.
“Gaining a position like this is never nice, but of course, I took the chance as it occurred. For Nick, it is obviously annoying.”
The Briton was unable to match his podium finish during either of the remaining races, retiring early with gearbox and braking issues ending his race two after only two laps, while he finished seventh after a quiet race three on Sunday.