George claims P4 in Formula One’s opening round in a dramatic Bahrain Grand Prix.

Under the flood lights of the Bahrain International Circuit, George lined up in P9 as he prepared for the race to get underway.

As the five lights went out, George made up two places into P7 as he began his push towards the podium.

With a series of early pit stops, George moved into P3 before pitting on lap 16 of 57 to switch from the Soft compound Pirelli tyres to the Hards and re-joining the track in P7.

Struggling on the Hard tyres, George switched onto the Mediums on lap 34, returning to the track in P7 before tracking down Valtteri Bottas for P6.

As the race entered the final 11 laps, a problem for the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly brought out a safety car and George seized the moment to dive into the pits, changing onto the Soft tyres for the final push.

As the chequered flag flew, George ended the race in P4 to gain 12 valuable points.

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George Russell – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team Driver

It was a positive race, I made a good start and then Lewis and I were on a race of our own, albeit on different strategies. We came home with a P3 and P4 for the team which we would have definitely taken prior to the weekend so in a long championship, we can be pleased with how today went. Considering we're half a second behind in qualifying and probably the same, if not more, on race pace, it was a good damage limitation weekend. There's a lot of potential in the car and we really need to dig down into the data and understand how to extract the performance. We recognise our rivals are a long way ahead of us, we know what the overall limitations of the car are, and we won't settle until we have the chance of the win.

Formula One will return for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Friday, 25 from 2pm GMT.

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