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Formula 1 motorsport director Ross Brawn has dismissed comments made by Mercedes driver George Russell who said that Saturday’s Emilia Romagna sprint was “processional”.

The British driver started the sprint in 11th and finished in the same place after getting caught up in a ‘DRS train’ in the early stages of the race stuck behind Haas driver Mick Schumacher.

With Schumacher on the medium compound, he was able to hold on to the life of his tyres better whereas the softs on Russell’s Mercedes started to degrade.

However Russell believes that the race didn’t go on long enough for the degradation to have an effect on the result.

“I don’t know what the rest of the race was like but it felt processional from where we were,” said Russell, as quoted by RaceFans.

“The race just isn’t long enough to get some tyre degradation there and to have some big differences between the drivers and the cars.”

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix sprint saw the first overtake for the lead take place when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was able to reel in leader Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari with just two laps to go.

Ross Brawn believes that the tyre compounds brought by Pirelli were perfect for this occasion and hailed the “great success” of 2022’s first sprint.

“I think we were fortunate in the tyres were perfect for the sprint race because they started to degrade,” he said, quoted by