The good news is that George Russell is fine after his 35G crash in FP2 in Mexico, but the worrying news is that Mercedes are in “serious trouble” with the resulting cost cap.

Russell suffered his second major crash in seven days when he lost control of his W15 in Friday’s second practice for the Mexican Grand Prix.

George Russell was seen holding his ribs after his FP2 crash

After setting the pace in FP1, Russell was out on track for just four laps in the latter session when he lost control at turn 8 and crashed heavily.

Smashing into the TecPro barriers sideways, Russell was hit hard and was seen clutching his ribs as he carefully climbed out of the cockpit.

He was taken to the track’s medical center as the impact was registered at more than 30G and later told F1 TV: “I’m fine. I feel a little irritated after that.

“Honestly, I don’t really know what happened. The car just started bouncing along the ground and before I could even catch it, it was already spinning.

“It just seems like it’s one thing after another right now.

“It’s frustrating because in FP1 we were really strong and really fast. I tried to take the same line and cut the corner, but for some reason at this point it just started to wear on me.

Toto Wolff confirmed Sky Deutschland that his driver was fine and while his car was not, Mercedes had the parts on hand to repair it for Saturday’s action.

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“35G, so that was a really big impact,” Wolff said. “He was taken to the health center, but he is okay.

“But of course the car is badly damaged. We have the parts.”

He added: “I think we can keep the old chassis, but everything else has to go.

“The engine has to be out, the gearbox has to be checked and everything else. Two corners of the car are completely gone. So it’s serious damage.”

The crash was Russell’s second in seven days as he also crashed during qualifying for the United States Grand Prix. That combined with Kimi Antonelli’s big Monza FP1 crash has left Mercedes facing a massive headache.

“We are in serious trouble,” Wolff said.

“We are all fighting to stay within the budget ceiling and of course we had a bad accident with Kimi at Monza. Then the other one with George last week and now again.”

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