'It's okay, bro': Marshal took longer route to help George Russell cool down
KUALA LUMPUR: A race marshal who gave Formula One driver George Russell a lift back to the pits on his motorcycle took a longer route after seeing how disappointed the Mercedes driver was following his late retirement in Sunday's race.
In the aftermath of a late retirement during the Bahrain Grand Prix, a race marshal named Awang went out of his way to comfort Formula One driver George Russell. As Russell's Mercedes car was unable to continue after a power unit failure, Awang offered him a ride back to the pits on his motorcycle. The driver was visibly distraught, barely able to speak after being picked up from his stranded vehicle.
Awang, noticing Russell's disappointment, comforted him by saying, "It's okay, bro. You can do it better." The race marshal then chose to take a slightly longer route to the pits, aiming to help Russell calm down and cool off before reaching the pit lane. This decision came after Russell had already fallen from third place, behind eventual winner Max Verstappen and Kimi Antil, to the back of the field.
This setback left Russell's deficit to championship leader Antil widen to 84 points, making it clear that the team principal, Toto Wolff, had confirmed the power unit failure that ended Russell's race.
Written by urgent.news from New Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
