Russell: I've been really ill and I've been really, really quick

Russell told Sky F1: "I've been really ill the last two weeks and I've been really, really quick. So I don't know if I need to be ill more often or what it is. The last two weeks I've just felt super-comfortable in the car, had about on average three hours sleep per night so maybe that's the secret everybody's missing."

Fourth on the grid was still something of a disappointment after Russell had raised the team's hopes by going fastest in final practice.

Formula 1 reaches the end of a gruelling 22-race season today with the finale at Yas Marina coming on the back of an American swing and the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix last Saturday.

That involved a practice session ending at 4 a.m. local time, qualifying starting at midnight and a race that began at 10 p.m. on the Saturday.

Abu Dhabi is 12 hours ahead of Las Vegas, a punishing adjustment for the travelling circus with five races on three continents in the space of five weeks including a triple-header of Texas-Mexico-Brazil.

Alpine's Esteban Ocon skipped his media commitments on Thursday because of sickness and said on Saturday he was still feeling the effects of a fever: "We didn’t see the sun for four days. It’s obviously not optimal to be in bed for two days before an F1 race."

Next year's F1 World Championship calendar will stretch to a record 24 races.