George Russell was visibly emotional in his first interview after crashing out on the final lap of the Singapore Grand Prix as he pushed for a win in what ended up being a pulsating race. Mercedes looked as though they had got the strategy spot on after taking advantage of Esteban Ocon’s retirement to put fresh medium tyres on both their cars.

Russell was leading the charge ahead of Lewis Hamilton with the pair quickly getting past Charles Leclerc to close down Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz. Sainz ended up using Norris to help both drivers keep Russell and Hamilton at bay heading into the final laps.

Russell and Hamilton appeared to run out of ideas with the former trying everything to find a way past Norris. But the 25-year-old made a costly error going into Turn 10 as he clipped the wall with his right rear before skidding off into the barrier.

Russell screamed on the radio in despair at crashing out and emotions were clearly still high as he went into the media pen. The Brit had tears in his eyes as he apologised to his Mercedes team for not finishing the race and picking up valuable points.

Click here to join our WhatsApp community to be the first to receive breaking and exclusive F1 news.

“No words to be honest. Such a long, physical race. Difficult to keep concentration,” Russell began to Sky Sports. “Carlos did a great job backing the pack up, not allowing us to do the alternative strategy.

“I think we were half a car’s length from winning the race had I got past Lando when I had the opportunity, I think we would have been able to get past Carlos. Then just the last lap, a millimetre lapse of concentration and game over. So just sorry to the whole team.