Russell reflects on misfortune and admits ‘it’s tough to take’

George Russell believes misfortune has prevented him from being able to put Formula One champion-in-waiting Kimi Antonelli under significant title pressure.

Russell's devastating late engine failure in Malaysia last weekend leaves him 84 points behind Antonelli with only seven scheduled races, and a possible 183 points, remaining.

It means the 20-year-old Italian is almost certain to lift his maiden world championship after Russell was again undone by reliability issues. He also retired from the Canadian Grand Prix in May and has been beset by ill-fortune throughout the season.

To compound Russell's problems, he has had to take a new power unit this weekend and so will start at the rear of the grid and he confirmed he is set to need another before the end of the season – which will incur another penalty.

The 28-year-old again confessed that Antonelli, who passed his Mercedes team-mate on track in Malaysia, has showed better performance throughout the season but believes in normal circumstances he would still be in the fight.

"The guy who's performed the best is the guy who's leading the championship," Russell said ahead of this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.

"If you add up the numbers and the points, I still think I'd be very much in the game in an ordinary season. I still think I'd be on the back foot, but in the game for it to flip very quick.

"When you add up the points from this season that have been lost, you know, I've probably had more failures this year than I've had in the three seasons put together.

"Of course, it's tough to take. If I'm being 100% fair with myself, as I've said before, the performance this season hasn't been strong enough. And it probably would have affected me more if these results have… like, who knows if I'd have still been in the fight or not, in a more normal circumstance.

"But obviously the pressure and the momentum, every setback has an impact on that momentum.

"It's been pretty incredible how things have panned out this year. But you've just got to focus on what you can control."

Russell will switch back to the car with which he won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix a fortnight ago while Antonelli will run Mercedes' Malaysia upgrade – after a weekend which boss Toto Wolff labelled their "worst" of the season.