Russell bemoans ‘relentless’ misfortune as title falls almost out of reach

George Russell says his misfortune has been “relentless” as his championship hopes took another blow with a late retirement in the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

Victory in Baku had meant Russell closed the gap to teammate Kimi Antonelli to 66 points, with Antonelli only fifth on that occasion. However, with Russell set to lose three points to the championship leader as the two Mercedes drivers ran second and third behind a late safety car in Sepang, a power unit issue then forced the Briton’s retirement and opened the gap up to 84 points.

“Another failure,” Russell said. “I was on course for a pretty certain podium. It's a tough one to take. It's unfortunately happened too many times this season. And, this is just where we are.”

Asked on if he feels the championship fight is now over, he replied: “Yeah, I'd say so.

“I definitely needed things to, everything to be going my way. If I wanted to fight back, and of course this weekend, it hasn’t. You know, never say never. But it's just pretty relentless this season with the amount of things that's gone away from us, that's been outside of our control.”

Russell says he had no prior warning of the issue that took him out of the race, but that it was an example of the type of fortune he needed to go his way to have any hope in the title fight.

“The power unit issue was very disappointing…there was just a sudden failure.

“I knew that if I wanted to come back in the championship, I needed luck on my side – it wouldn’t just be good performances – and here we are not only without luck on my side, I’ve got bad luck on my side.”

Team principal Toto Wolff says the number of reliability issues that Mercedes has had this season is a cause for concern, as it has hampered both drivers at different times.

“This has been our worst weekend of the season,” Wolff said. “It hurts, and I feel incredibly sorry for George and everyone in the team. George drove an outstanding race and was on course for a very strong result, but we let him down. The reality is that has happened too often this year, and that is not acceptable.

“We were not quick enough, and we were not reliable enough in Malaysia. That is the truth. Both drivers kept fighting, stayed focused, and got everything out of the car that was possible though. Whilst George lost out through no fault of his own, Kimi did a very good job and deserved his podium.”