Thursday Oct 23, 2025
Thursday Oct 23, 2025
Tuesday, 7 October 2025 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
George Russell
Mercedes driver George Russell says he “feels ready to fight for a championship” after taking a dominant victory in the Singapore Grand Prix.
Russell’s second win of the season, following success in Canada in June, came on the same track on which he had crashed out of third place on the final lap while chasing a victory in 2023.
He finished ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen with McLaren’s Lando Norris third and championship leader Oscar Piastri fourth.
“I’m a very different driver today to the one I was a couple of years ago, and I feel more complete, more confident,” Russell said.
“I know exactly what I need to do in given circumstances.
“Of course, I was nervous before the race, as you’d expect, but I didn’t feel any additional nerves or any additional pressure. It just felt like another race, and I knew I had a chance to win, and I felt comfortable with that.
“So I’ve said it for a while – I feel ready to fight for a championship. I feel ready to take it to my next step.”
Russell put his improvement this year down to “experience, just knowing how to maximise every situation.”
He added: “Probably a couple of years ago I was driving a bit more tense and probably over-pushing in circumstances when I shouldn’t have been.
“Now I just feel much more relaxed. Going into today, I was relaxed. When it was raining an hour before the race, I just said: ‘You know, it is what it is. It’s the same for everybody. There’s nothing I can do, so there’s no point stressing about it.’ Myself a few years ago would have been slightly different.”
Russell said he believed Singapore had been “probably my most dominant weekend” but hesitated to categorise it as his best win, saying last year’s victory in Las Vegas was “pretty cool”.
He also said that winning in Singapore had been “so unexpected” – Mercedes have had a difficult run of races and their second place in the constructors’ championship was coming under threat.
