George Russell rescued young rival whose kart had flipped on top of him
George Russell was labelled a hero after rushing to the aid of Zhou Guanyu following his terrifying shunt at the British Grand Prix.
After a slow start, Russell’s Mercedes veered into the path of Zhou, inadvertently flipping the Alfa Romeo onto its roof. Zhou’s car then hurtled across the gravel trap at high speed before flipping over the tyre wall and slamming into the spectator fencing.
Russell promptly parked his W13 on the side of the track and sprinted towards the stricken Alfa to see if he could help. After a worrying few minutes with Zhou trapped in his car, he was eventually extracted and taken to medical centre before being released with a clean bill of health.
READ MORE: George Russell blames tyre choice for poor start which led to horror British GP crash
It has since emerged that it wasn’t the first time Russell had raced to help a fellow driver in trouble. Former junior rival Callum Ilott has taken to social media to reveal Russell once lifted a kart off him following a crash.
“The first time I flipped a go kart, @GeorgeRussell63 stopped on track to lift it off of me. He’s always been a good egg since day 1, great role model for anyone.”
Ilott is still hoping to forge an F1 career of his own, having been Alfa Romeo’s reserve driver last year and part of the Ferrari Driver Academy. The 23-year-old is currently on a ‘gap year’ from the Ferrari ranks and is currently racing in IndyCar with Juncos Racing.
Meanwhile, Russell, speaking ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, said going to help Zhou was a “natural reaction”.
As a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, he has said F1 and the FIA need to address the void between the barriers that left Zhou trapped in his car.
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“It was sort of horrifying to see him trapped in there, literally not being able to get out of the car,” he said. “He was obviously fine, and I could see he was moving. But as drivers, we all know that you’re sort of in there pretty tight. You’ve got the helmet on, you’ve got the halo there, the headrest.
“And then when you’ve got a tyre wall effectively on top of your head blocking your exit hanging upside down, it’s just a horrible situation to be in. I think from every sort of disaster that there’s an opportunity to improve as a sport, whatever it may be.
“Clearly things could have been positioned slightly differently to have given him that exit. There was a gap between the barriers and the catch fence. He was obviously trapped in there, that needs to be resolved. It wasn’t nice.”
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