George Russell Relieved Mercedes Solved Power Unit Issue Ahead of Hungarian GP

Mercedes driver George Russell heads into this week's Hungarian Grand Prix trailing teammate Kimi Antonelli by 50 points, following his first-lap retirement at the Belgian Grand Prix last week due to a collision with Lewis Hamilton.

That incident doubled the points gap after Antonelli won the race—his sixth victory out of 10 rounds this season—even though Russell had previously managed to slash the deficit from 66 points down to 25 over three races in Spain, Austria, and Britain.

Over the weekend in Belgium, Russell battled a series of engine-related issues that hampered his performance. During the break between Belgium and Hungary, Mercedes successfully diagnosed the cause of Russell's electrical power deployment deficit at the end of the lap, which cost him about half of the 0.5-second gap to Antonelli in qualifying.

During the race itself, both drivers suffered a similar lack of electrical power when accelerating out of the first corner following the start. However, due to differing circumstances, Antonelli was less affected because he had to lift off the throttle entering Eau Rouge under pressure from Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, and that lift reset the system, giving him electrical power for the subsequent straight.

Meanwhile, Russell took Eau Rouge flat-out, meaning the power deficiency left him vulnerable, leading to him being hit by Hamilton at the chicane shortly after.