George Russell makes his presence felt at the 2025 Miami Grand Prix

George Russell has equalled his podium tally from last year within the first six races of the 2025 Formula One season.

Russell extended his impressive run of top five finishes and brought himself to within six points of third place in the Drivers’ Championship despite a weekend marred by difficulties at the Miami Grand Prix.

In the sole practice session of the weekend, Russell could only set a time fast enough for seventh which was not a positive indicator ahead of the competitive running later.

True to Mercedes’ form all season, when it mattered the car was closer to the pace with both drivers reaching the final stage of Sprint qualifying and pushing for the front of the grid.

Unfortunately for Russell, the pace did not fall in his favour as his rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli was the quicker Mercedes and took pole leaving the driver from Tydd St Giles in fifth.

The Sprint was delayed due to heavy rain but, once the race got underway, Russell held fifth place despite chaos up front and reverted to one of his typical strategies of making a pit stop later than those around him.

This allowed Russell to take the chequered flag in fifth place and move up to fourth thanks to a penalty for Max Verstappen in front of him.

A similar story from the Sprint repeated itself in Grand Prix qualifying as both Mercedes' showed promising pace yet it was Antonelli who had the faster car in third with Russell once again back in fifth.

In the Grand Prix itself, Russell started on the hard tyre with a view to a long opening stint and held position in fifth for the early stages of the race.

When the cars in front of him had made their pit stops due to softer compounds, Russell kept going on his hard tyres in third place until the opportune moment arose and that came about thanks to Ollie Bearman’s Haas having technical problems which brought out a virtual safety car (VSC).

Making a pit stop under a VSC saves around 11 seconds of race time and allowed Russell to change onto the medium tyres and retain third place - jumping Verstappen and Antonelli who had made stops earlier on.

In the closing stages of the race, Russell came under pressure from a charging Red Bull but he successfully managed the gap to Verstappen despite suffering from stomach cramps to take third place.

He said: "I was really happy to come away with third place.

"I've been struggling a little more than usual this weekend and not felt as comfortable in the car as at previous races this season.

"I've been a little on the back foot but, when it mattered, we put in a good performance and came away with another strong result.

"Verstappen was close behind me after we pitted but I felt positive on the medium tyre and knew I could manage my pace to keep him behind.

"Ultimately the McLarens had a decent advantage over the rest of the field so congratulations to them.

"It will be a tough ask to close them down, but we will keep working on doing that and we're looking forward to the upcoming triple header in Europe, starting at Imola."

Russell's third place finish puts him fourth in the Drivers’ Championship ahead of the Formula One AWS Gran Premio Del Made in Italy e Dell’Emilia-Romagna on May 16-18.