Sixth place finish for George Russell in the United States Grand Prix

George Russell delivered another strong comeback drive as he 'made the best of a bad situation' in the United States Grand Prix on Sunday.

Russell rose to finish in sixth place from a pit lane start which was the first time he has scored points after starting outside the top 18.

In the only practice session of the weekend, Russell failed to show any remarkable pace as he was seventh on the timesheets but the driver from Tydd St Giles improved for Friday afternoon's sprint qualifying.

Russell was at the top of the times - on provisional pole - and this continued until the dying moments of the session where Max Verstappen took the top spot with the 24-year-old having to settle for second.

Starting from the front row in the Sprint race, Russell spent most of his time on track going backwards down the order as he was overtaken on the start by Lando Norris and spent the early stages fending off the Ferrari cars.

Russell briefly mounted a charge on Norris however this destroyed his tyres and in the final laps the Mercedes driver fell behind the Ferraris to come fifth.

In qualifying, Russell easily made his way through to the final stage however on his last lap of the day he crashed at turn 12 and consequently had to settle for sixth place - his worst qualifying at the Circuit of the Americas for Mercedes.

However, the worst was yet to come as Mercedes had to breach parc fermé regulations to repair the damage on Russell's car which relegated the Briton to a pit lane start.

In the early stages of the race, Russell made slow progress as he was on the hard tyre and he only gained places from others misfortune - including benefitting from his team-mate Lewis Hamilton crashing out of the race.

However, Russell had soon mounted a charge on Valtteri Bottas to take 14th place but this was not plain sailing for the Mercedes driver as he supposedly overtook the Sauber off track which led to a five second penalty.

Despite this, Russell made his way up to sixth place before he made his only pit stop on lap 41 which brought him out in eighth.

On fresh rubber, Russell set the then fastest lap of the race as he charged down Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez to take sixth place and move himself closer to his team-mate in the championship standings.

Russell said: "I was pleased with how it went from my side.

"We didn’t know what the race would bring in terms of opportunities but going from the pit lane to sixth, and finishing ahead of a Red Bull, meant that we made the best of a difficult situation.

"We had good pace throughout, in particular on the hard compound tyre. We were able to extend that first stint and give ourselves fresher rubber with which to attack in the closing laps.

"We will work hard in the coming days to analyse the weekend as a whole. The car can still be tricky at times.

"When we find its sweet spot, it is capable of strong performances but that is difficult to deliver consistently.

"I think the car had the potential to fight for the podium this weekend, but we need to widen its operating window. We will therefore be looking to bounce back this weekend in Mexico."

The 2024 Formula One season continues this weekend (October 25-27) for the Mexican Grand Prix.