F1 driver George Russell finishes in fourth place in the Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

George Russell narrowly lost his grip on fourth place in the Formula One drivers' championship after a podium finish eluded him in Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

Russell went into the first race weekend after the summer break confident as he had recorded his first podium finish at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps last season with second place in the rain-affected race after a superb qualifying performance.

At the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Russell's Mercedes Petronas Formula One Team were celebrating 55 years of AMG with commemorative roundels on the livery.

However, in the Friday and Saturday practice sessions, Russell once again struggled to generate tyre temperature on the cold track meaning he could only set lap times good enough for eighth and sixth.

The situation did not improve in qualifying for the Mercedes driver as low temperatures meant Russell had to rely on a slipstream from his team-mate Lewis Hamilton convincingly make it out of the first stage.

Russell then made it through to the final stage of qualifying but struggled in the first sector of his flying lap and could only produce a time good enough for eighth.

Thanks to power unit penalties for other drivers, Russell was promoted to fifth on the grid meaning the driver from Tydd lined up alongside his former Formula Two rival, Williams Racing driver Alex Albon.

The start to the race was chaotic with drivers ahead of him making poor starts and jostling for position.

Russell benefited from this and, after a chaotic first lap, made his way up to third after his team-mate was knocked out of the race.

A safety car period was then declared after an incident on track which allowed Russell's rivals to close in on him with the eventual winner, Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen, breezing past him thanks to help from the drag reduction system.

Russell then passed the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and also moved up two places after other drivers made their pit stops which left him second.

His Mercedes team then told Russell to pit but he boldly defied them as he was setting some of his fastest laps of the Grand Prix.

One lap later, Russell made his second pit stop onto the hard tyre to fulfil the rule that stipulates that two different compounds must be used which brought him out into the field in fourth.

Russell then began a rampant charge, closing the gap to Ferrari's Carlos Sainz by seven seconds in the space of 10 laps.

However, Russell made a few mistakes in the latter stages and failed to make a move on Sainz ultimately coming fourth, one place ahead of where he started.

This means that the Spaniard is now one point ahead of Russell in the drivers' standings with the Brit in fifth, one position ahead of his team-mate Hamilton.

Russell said: "I have mixed feelings right now because had you told me last night we will be two seconds off the podium on merit and pure pace, I'd have said that's a good recovery.

"When I was closing in on Carlos at the end, a second a lap, I thought here we go - we're in for a really good shot here.

"But then I just had two really scrappy laps and got the tyres out of the window. When the tyres are in that sweet spot, the car is transformed but as soon as I lost them, I knew the podium was game-over.

"Overall, considering where we were, fourth place and two seconds off the podium - not too bad.

"Our race pace was probably better than the Ferraris - Carlos started on pole, was leading the first stint and we closed him in both times.

"So at worst, I think we were equal with Ferrari, but as we know, it's swings and roundabouts. What is clear is, Max is cruising away at the moment."

The 2022 Formula One season continues this weekend with the Dutch Grand Prix