Russell 'glad to see the end' of Miami GP after missing the podium again

George Russell says his weekend at the Miami Grand Prix was “an outlier” and that he expects to recover quickly as momentum shifts at different points this season.

Kimi Antonelli took his third victory in a row in Miami, achieving the feat from pole position on all three occasions, having previously not taken pole or won a race in Formula 1. Russell failed to finish on the podium for the second consecutive race as he was classified fourth, but says Miami in particular is a race he struggles with and is keen to move on from.

“It's a funny old place and it's been a funny old weekend, so I'm very glad to see the end of it,” Russell said. “I'm just looking forward to getting into some more traditional circuits and see what that brings. It's clearly been an outlier weekend for me.

“It's obviously a little bit frustrating, but I think over the course of a year, that's always going to be the case at certain points. It's why I'm still standing here, head held high, because Melbourne I was quickest – pole and win – and China had the pace – won the Sprint race, pole there, had the issue in qualifying – and Japan has also had the potential of victory without the unfortunateness of a safety car.

“So the smallest of differences, I could be standing here saying, ‘OK, Miami is a one-off and this is my first bad weekend of the season’. Unfortunately, it's not. That's the way the game goes, and it's swings and roundabouts.”

Russell overtook Max Verstappen late on and then cleared Charles Leclerc on the final lap to move up from sixth to fourth and limit the damage to Antonelli, but after slipping 20 points adrift of his team-mate he says the season is likely to see fluctuations in form at different stages.

“The result could have been worse,” he said. “It was a very tough race. The pace was really, really poor on my side. I've got some ideas, to be honest. I could use the last 20 laps as a bit of a test for myself and try some quite drastic changes with my driving style and some of the differential and brake settings on my car and it improved things. But I just can't wait for the next races where we're slightly more normal conditions, and no major cause for concern.

“Clearly [Antonelli’s] in a really great place at the moment and momentum is with him, but I've got enough experiences myself in championships I've won on how momentum swings throughout a year, and also looking at the championship last year.

"To be honest, I'm not even considering it. It's just I want to get back onto the top step of the podium. The first three races I had the performance to do that. This weekend I absolutely did not have the performance to do that.

“So I could be standing here now with three very different results from the previous races and then this just being a bit of a one-off. But obviously things worked out differently in Japan and China, so that's Formula 1 sometimes.”