Mercedes driver George Russell said last night that he was happy about winning the Formula 1 race in Canada, but also about his teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli's first podium finish.
"I'm delighted to see Kimi Antonelli also on the podium, a great day for the whole team. Thanks to everyone at the factory who worked hard to get us back in the fight for wins. It feels fantastic," said Russell, as reported by the BBC.
Russell recorded the fourth triumph of his career at the Montreal track, and the first for him and the Mercedes team this season.
The British driver looked back on last year and the race in Canada, when he also started from pole position, but Red Bull driver Max Verstappen took the win.
"It's incredible to be back on the top step of the podium. Our last win was in Las Vegas (November 23 last year). I felt like we lost the win here last year, but today we got it thanks to an incredible qualifying lap yesterday," added the 27-year-old driver.
Russell said that the Mercedes cars are enjoying the colder conditions that were experienced in Canada.
"I would like to raise expectations, but I think the strength of our car is in colder conditions. We will see how it goes in the next races, but for now we are enjoying this moment."
Russell also spoke about the next race in Austria.
"We won in Austria last year, maybe that's a good sign. Now we're enjoying it. We had expectations going into this weekend and everything turned out as we hoped," he pointed out.
Second place in Canada was taken by Verstappen, a four-time consecutive world champion, who said that this was his team's maximum.
"We drove a race where we attacked and defended. We attacked with strategy and defended from the cars behind us. In the end it paid off for us and I think that was the maximum we could get out of it today. The season is long, so we will take it race by race. We will always give our best," added Verstappen, ahead of the race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
Antonelli, who took third place, said that a good start and taking over the position from McLaren driver Oscar Piastre was key.
"It was very stressful, but I'm overjoyed. I had a good start, I managed to get up to third place and stay there. After the last tire change I maybe put a little too much pressure on Max and that ruined my front left tire, so I struggled at the end, but I'm happy to get on the podium," the 18-year-old driver said.
The race ended with an incident between McLaren driver Piastre and Lando Norris, which left Norris out of the race. Piastre, on the other hand, crossed the finish line in fourth place and increased his lead in the overall standings.
After 10 races, Piastre leads the overall standings with 198 points, Norris is second with 176 points, Verstappen is third with 155 points, while Russell is in fourth place with 136 points.
The championship continues in two weeks with the race for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Bonus video:
