It all started with a post-race message in Jeddah to celebrate the third-place finish on hand following Alonso’s FIA sanction. “Fernando and Aston Martin deserved the podium today (for Sunday), but I am very happy to collect our first trophy of the season and very proud of the hard work the team is putting in. Let’s keep pushing.” wrote Russell celebrating what was the first podium of the year for Mercedes… until the FIA reversed its decision and handed third place back to Fernando.
It was then that the Spaniard, the day after, caused an earthquake on social networks with his usual humor by claiming the Briton his third-place trophy at the Saudi Arabian GP with a simple “Hello” accompanied by emoticons and a devastating close-up photo. The message, with more than 250,000 “likes” and close to eight million views, spread like wildfire and Russell was forced to respond this Tuesday with a laugh: “Until next time, friend.” Surely they will meet again in the fight for the podiums.