Russell: I’m just gutted for the team

Russell had been running as high as eighth when a slow pit stop saw him slip down the order, with the Brit forced to retire a few laps later.

The 23-year-old impressed all weekend, qualifying 11th and then gaining places on the opening lap.

Speaking afterwards, Russell was confident that he would have been able to hold onto eighth and was even eyeing the potential of finishing even further up the field.

“I’m just gutted for the team to be honest,” he said. “You know, they’ve worked so hard to be in this position over the past three years, chasing these points.

"We never really knew when they would come and we knew we’d have to have a perfect weekend and, you know, we were in such a great position – P8, on the medium tyre – we would have been able to pounce at the end.

“And I think P7 was probably possible, ahead of Alonso and there’s four or six points, is massive. It’s the difference probably between P8 and P10 in the championship.”

Asked whether the pace that Williams had shown in Austria came as a shock, Russell explained that the team had done "great work" to get to this position, with the chance of a strong result next week when Formula 1 returns to the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix.

“I wasn’t surprised to be honest because I know we’ve done some really great work recently to improve the car and I knew the pace on Friday was strong," he added.

"I was obviously on the mediums compared to the guys ahead on the softs, so I was driving my heart out, driving as fast as I could to keep behind the Ferrari and AlphaTauri and McLaren, you know? We’re not normally in this position so we should be proud of the job we did."