Hakkinen hails Russell win – It's the first of many!

Former World Champion Mika Hakkinen has hailed George Russell’s 'perfect' performance in his maiden win at Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix, saying the Briton's victory will be the first of many.

Having overtaken Max Verstappen to finish first in Saturday's Sprint race, Russell repeated the trick on Sunday with a victory in which he was never truly threatened at the front.

Russell also dealt with the pressure of two Safety Car restarts with relative ease, and Hakkinen talked up the consummate nature of the Briton's performance.

"The racing was brilliant this weekend and George really deserves the win after putting in such a strong performance," Hakkinen told Unibet.

"He was the quickest Mercedes driver in Friday qualifying, then won Saturday's Sprint race in a very impressive way.

"To be clear, he drove a perfect Grand Prix on Sunday – made a fantastic start, opened up a gap and did not allow Safety Car periods to interfere with his confidence.

"He had quite a lot of pressure to deal with, especially when Lewis Hamilton came to within 1.5 seconds of him, but he managed his lead perfectly."

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