Best points haul so far from Mercedes driver George Russell

George Russell made a strong start to the new Formula 1 season by claiming the best points haul of his career in Bahrain on Sunday.

The Mercedes driver – who attended Wisbech Grammar School and is from Tydd St Giles – finished in fourth spot after a dramatic finale to the first Grand Prix of the season.

Under the floodlights of the Bahrain International Circuit, Russell had lined up in ninth place as he prepared for the race to get under way.

As the five lights went out, Russell made up two places into seventh as he began his push towards the podium.

With a series of early pit stops, Russell moved into third spot before pitting on lap 16 of 57 to switch from the soft compound Pirelli tyres to the hards and re-joining the track in seventh.

Struggling on the hard tyres, Russell switched onto the mediums on lap 34, returning to the track in seventh before tracking down Valtteri Bottas for sixth.

As the race entered the final 11 laps, a problem for the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly brought out a safety car and Russell seized the moment to dive into the pits, changing onto the soft tyres for the final push.

With two of the Red Bull cars in front of Russell then being forced to retire in the closing stages, Russell ended the race in fourth spot to gain 12 valuable points.

He said: “It was a positive race.

“I made a good start and then Lewis Hamilton (Russell’s team-mate) and I were on a race of our own, albeit on different strategies.

“We came home with a third and fourth for the team which we would have definitely taken prior to the weekend so, in a long championship, we can be pleased with how it went.

“Considering we were half a second behind in qualifying and probably the same, if not more, on race pace, it was a good damage limitation weekend.

“There’s a lot of potential in the car and we really need to dig down into the data and understand how to extract the performance.

“We recognise our rivals are a long way ahead of us and we know what the overall limitations of the car are so we won’t settle until we have the chance of the win.”

Russell will be in action again this weekend in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.