Russell: I'm relieved to have finished on the podium

The Mercedes driver started the Grand Prix from fourth on the grid after Friday's Qualifying session, which was dominated by McLaren's Lando Norris to the tune of over three tenths of a second.

The Briton got off to a brilliant start in the race the following day, easing past Carlos Sainz' Williams and battling through on Norris on the opening lap after the latter went wide into the first corner.

Russell tried to stick with the leading car of Max Verstappen in the early stages of the 50-lap event, but quickly started suffering from overheating and tyre degradation and subsequently fell back.

Norris eventually passed the Mercedes driver on lap 34 of the race, and Russell continued to complain over team radio about tyre wear as well as a heavy steering wheel, which had plagued him throughout the weekend.

Despite all of the challenges, Russell was delighted to come across the line in a podium position.

He said: "That was a difficult race, so I'm relieved to have finished P3 and added another podium to our tally.

"I had an opportunity to put Max under pressure in both stints but doing that hurt the tyre. That was particularly the case on the Hard tyre and made the rest of my race challenging.

"At one point I thought we were going to have to make another stop but thankfully we had a good gap behind us, and we could manage our pace to the end to take third," stated Russell.

The 27-year-old continued by congratulating his teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli for an impressive comeback drive in the Grand Prix.

He continued: "Kimi did an amazing job to finish P4 on the road and P5 in the final classification.

"Collectively, it's a great result for the team as we come away here with another good bunch of points.

"Our aim is to hold second in the Constructors' Championship come Abu Dhabi and we now head to Qatar with our advantage intact," concluded Russell.

Antonelli was caught out by the treacherous condition during Qualifying and was shockingly knocked out in Q1 alongside the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton among others.

In the race however, the young Italian put this to one side to mount a titanic charge up the running order. He crossed the line in P4.

The teenager said: "I am very happy with how our race went this evening. It felt like redemption after yesterday where we were knocked out in Q1.

"It was a shame that we started so far back as without that, we would have definitely been in the hunt right at the front.

"That said, we need to be pleased with how we performed today and that we were able to add good points for the team after a difficult qualifying," Antonelli added.

The Mercedes driver put up a valiant defence against both Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc in the final third of the race, keeping them behind until the end despite having much older tyres.

On this, Antonelli continued: "Halfway through the race I started to see some graining on the front tyres. That made me a little worried that we would be forced into a second stop and lose the positions we had gained.

"I was focused on talking to the tyres and just asking them to hold on!

"Eventually the graining cleaned up and I was able to put some strong laps in and limit the damage of our penalty to take P5."

While Russell and Antonelli were initially classified in third and fifth positions respectively, disqualifications for both McLaren cars promoted them to second and third. A surprise double podium for the Brackley-based outfit.