Russell rues 'difficult' Singapore GP as 'story of the season' after recovery to ninth

A tough weekend from the back of the grid

George Russell described his Singapore Grand Prix weekend as the "story of the season" after a "very difficult" recovery drive at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, where he crossed the line in ninth place.

Russell crashed out of the lead during Saturday's Sprint, and his woes continued on Sunday. He served a grid penalty for taking new power unit components following his retirement at the previous race in Malaysia, which dropped him from a qualifying slot of P6 to P19.

After working his way into the top 10, Russell appeared to have a chance to make his first pit stop under a Virtual Safety Car. However, the VSC phase ended just as he entered the pits, meaning he could not benefit fully.

Battle with Hulkenberg

In the closing stages Russell chased down Audi's Nico Hulkenberg in a battle for eighth, but could not find a way past.

"I think we made good progress in the first stint, to be honest. I was pretty pleased with the progress there. However, the second stint with that VSC… could have stayed out a little bit longer."

"Then Nico did a great job defending – I struggled to get by him. And then towards the end of the race, it wasn't worth the risk so I just brought the car home. Not a fantastic weekend, so a bit of a shame."

"A little bit story of the season"

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Russell said: "It was always going to be very difficult coming from the back. It's been a bit of a shame these last two weekends – it could have panned out very differently."

"A little bit story of the season, everything just not going in a fantastic way, so very much looking forward to the break now."

Another engine penalty on the horizon

Russell acknowledged he will likely have to take a second engine-related penalty during the rest of the season. "[We're] maybe looking at Vegas, but it will be there at some point. But now we've got the choice to take it when we wish, and we'll be choosing a slightly easier track than this one."

Mercedes chasing Red Bull's pace

Russell said the immediate goal for Mercedes is to restore the form it showed earlier in the campaign and get on top of its recent upgrade. "The goal right now is to try and improve the car, because we were very much the dominant team for this whole season and, you look at the recent races, Red Bull have been very much the best," he explained.

"In Baku, Max [Verstappen] was similar level to me. You go to Malaysia, totally different track, you go to Singapore, totally a different track again, and he's dominated the last two weekends, so right now as a team the goal is to try and get on top of these updates."