"Racing is just brutal," says George Russell as he laments technical issue that cost him his first points finish of the season.

No sooner had George Russell pulled into the pits for the third time than 'oh George' began trending on Twitter as fans shared the Williams driver's frustration at another point-less afternoon.

The youngster, who started from 10th following the penalty meted out to Yuki Tsunoda, made a great start and was up to 8th by the end of the opening lap. As the race settled down, the Williams driver found himself on the tail of Fernando Alonso, anticipating his first points finish of the season.

However, on lap 25 the Briton pitted after the team noticed an issue, he rejoined the race in 17th but pitted again just one lap later. Rejoining, now in 18th, he continued for another ten laps before the team opted to retire him.

"I'm just gutted for the team to be honest," he subsequently told reporters. "You know, they've worked so hard to be in this position over the past three years, chasing these points. We never really knew when they would come and we knew we'd have to have a perfect weekend and, you know, we were in such a great position... P8, on the medium tyre, we would have been able to pounce at the end.

"I think P7 was probably possible," he sighed, "ahead of Alonso and there's four or six points, its massive... it's the difference probably between P8 and P10 in the championship."

Asked about the fact that he found himself in the heart of the midfield battle, Russell said: "I wasn't surprised to be honest, because I know we've done some really great work recently to improve the car and I knew the pace on Friday was strong.

"I was obviously on the mediums compared to the guys ahead on the softs, so I was driving my heart out, driving as fast as I could to keep behind the Ferrari and AlphaTauri and McLaren, you know?

"We're not normally in this position so we should be proud of the job we did. Racing is just brutal."

The cause of his retirement is not yet known, though the Briton believes it was "something to do with the pneumatic pressure".

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