George Russell finishes in seventh place in the Japanese Grand Prix

George Russell remained upbeat despite a challenging weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The driver from Tydd St Giles finished seventh and continued his run of beating his team-mate Lewis Hamilton at every race this year.

He had made a strong start to the weekend as he placed fourth and third respectively in the two practice sessions he drove in as Friday afternoon's running was disrupted by rain.

Unfortunately, Russell's form did not continue into qualifying as, despite progressing through to the final stage, the Mercedes car failed to heat up its tyres effectively and as a result the 26-year-old could only reach ninth on the timesheets.

To further his woes, in the first qualifying session, Russell was released into the path of McLaren's Oscar Piastri when he exited the garage which netted Mercedes a fine of €5,000.

Starting on the medium tyre alongside RB's Yuki Tsunoda, Russell held position on the opening lap but his progress was halted by a red flag being thrown.

During the stoppage, Russell changed onto the hard tyres to try and attempt a one stop strategy however this cost him a position on the restart as the home hero Tsunoda took ninth spot.

A few laps later, he repassed Tsunoda and then found himself on the tail of his team-mate Hamilton who gallantly allowed the faster Russell to go past without a fight.

Other drivers making their stops moved Russell up to fifth, however, normality resumed when he dived into the pits and emerged in ninth.

Russell then made a second pit stop back onto the medium tyre for the final stint which gave him impressive pace as he set the then fastest lap of the race as he chased down Oscar Piastri.

On lap 50 of 53, Russell attempted to pass Piastri however there was not enough room and he ended up pushing the Australian off the track which was noted by the stewards - but did not result in a penalty.

On the final lap, Russell executed his overtake on Piastri to secure seventh spot.

Russell said: "We moved forward and that was positive.

"The plan to start on the hard tyre after the red flag was to give us the flexibility to attempt either a one-stop or a two-stop.

"It was good to have this freedom and ultimately we ended up on the two-stop strategy as the one stop wasn’t working.

"We had a challenging opening stint but, after that first stop, our pace looked competitive to those ahead.

"It was an exciting race towards the end. It’s always nice to be attacking rather than defending and it was good, hard racing.

"There was some contact with Oscar, which was a racing incident, but I was glad to get the position in the end.

"It's close between the four teams behind Red Bull and qualifying is going to be critical at each race. Whoever starts ahead will likely finish at the front of that pack.

"We know we've got work to do and we will keep pushing. Hopefully a track like the one in China will suit us better."

For the next race, Formula One makes its long-awaited return to Shanghai - a track it has not visited since 2019 - for the Chinese Grand Prix on April 19-21.