"Thumbs up for cheating!": Fans react to George Russell cutting the second chicane and gaining advantage during 2023 F1 Spanish GP

George Russell drove brilliantly in the 2023 F1 Spanish GP to his first podium this season. Though he had a bad qualifying session on Saturday and started the race from P12, he quickly gained positions and was on a good tire strategy, allowing him to finish third, right behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Recently, the official F1 Twitter account posted a video of how George Russell moved up the ranks to end up in third place. In the video, he was seen passing several drivers. He also went off the racing track on lap one because he was squeezed to the inside of Turn 2.

The moment George Russell drove through the escape road in Turn 2 and later overtook both Nico Hulkenberg and Oscar Piastri, was noted by the stewards. However, he received no penalty whatsoever for it.

Several fans criticized Russel for gaining an unfair advantage and noted how the FIA did not give him a penalty.

"Thumbs up for cheating!" wrote one user.

Here are some more reactions:

Later in the race, it was mentioned that the stewards did not see the massive time advantage that George Russell gained. Hence, the Mercedes driver was not penalized for going down the escape route on lap one. However, several F1 fans were still not satisfied with the final decision.

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George Russell explained how he mistook his sweat for raindrops in Spanish GP

During the 2023 F1 Spanish GP, George Russell came on the team radio and asked his team whether there was any rain on the radar. However, later on, he came back on the radio and stated that it might have been his own sweat.

After the race, he explained how he made this hilarious mistake:

“I had a bit of an issue when I started the race because I didn’t put all my hair in my balaclava so I had hair dangling down and it was sort of flickering in front of my eyes, so that was annoying."

He continued:

“And then as I started to sweat, it was dripping down my hair and every time I was braking, it was jumping onto the visor on the inside. It took me about four laps to realize what was going on, when I wiped my visor, and the water didn’t disappear. I put two and two together and worked it out.”

George Russell is currently fifth in the drivers' championship with 65 points, behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who has 87 points.