George Russell said he’s been through a tough time after scoring his first victory since the season-opening race three months ago.

The Mercedes driver, who led the championship at the start of the year, failed to score in two consecutive races while his team mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli pulled away at the top of the standings. But Russell’s win from pole position yesterday restored him to second place in the points.

Afterwards he said it “feels like a long time” since his win in Australia 16 weeks ago. “It’s been a tough couple of months with some really tricky races, with races that felt like everything was going against me, then some races with some tough performances.

“Obviously, I’ve got a really incredible team mate next to me who, week-in, week-out, is delivering some pretty spectacular performances. So, for me, going into Canada, going into Barcelona from quite a low point, I needed a lot of resilience to be able to get back and deliver some strong performances.

“So to get the last two poles, to get the win here this weekend, especially on a track which I don’t think is so suited to me, I’m really, really proud of.”

Russell came under pressure from Max Verstappen in Red Bull’s upgraded car at points in the race, finishing just 1.6 seconds ahead of his rival. However he said the race felt “really calm and controlled.”

“I think if we took Max out of the picture, you’d say it was a really strong performance from Mercedes,” said Russell. “20 seconds ahead of McLaren, more ahead of Ferrari.

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“With the upgrades on the Red Bull, Max was in the fight for pole yesterday, really great race pace from him today. He pressured me in the middle stint and forced me to stop with 28 laps remaining, which was quite uncomfortable.

“But I had a really strong first 20 laps of that stint, which allowed me just to bring it home in the final eight.”

Russell took victory after claiming a controversial pole position on Saturday after passing single yellow flags at the scene of Verstappen’s crash. He said starting from the front was “crucial”.

“Everything got hooked up,” said Russell. “I still think we’d have been in the fight regardless of what happened yesterday, but for sure, starting from pole position, everything is made easier.”

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Keith Collantine

Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 – when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring journalist, Keith began running the site full-time in 2010, achieving a long-held ambition to dedicate his full attention to his passion for motor racing. View all posts by Keith Collantine