Russell was enjoying a strong race in Las Vegas, running in contention fꦉor the podium.

However, when Verstapꦺpen looked to overtake him, the pair coꦓllided.

Russell was given a five-second time penalty as a resul🅺t, dropping him from fourth to eighth. 

Speaking💫 to ๊Sky after the race, Russell reflected on his clash with the three-time world champion.

“Another massively missed opportunity this weekend,” he said.𒊎 “The incident with Max💯 was totally my fault. I didn’t see him. Totally in my blind spot going around Turn 11.

“I was expecting the overtake there. You’ve got the l♏ong DRS afterwards. We were on course for 🦩an easy podium after. It was pretty straightforward.

🃏“Recovered to P4, the five seconds knocks us d𓂃own to P8. This season is one thing after another!”

On the whole, it’s been a disappointing season for Russell, who has scored just one podium in F1 2023.

The Britishꦺ driv😼er struggled to hide his frustration.

“Pace was strong but not as strong as the Red Bulls and the Ferraris,” he said. “I think, when you have a fast car, luck is always on your s🐓ide. When you’re on the back foot, luck is never on your side.

“Ultimately we just need to keep on pushing, go into next week and se♒e what we can do. It was just on the wheel cover. If anything, it would have helped my graining because it would have given me extra cool♔ing. I think we had a few cuts in that tyre so we did the wise thing and changed that set of tyres.

“We recovered P4. Even without the penalty I would have been disappointed. We should have been on that podium. It would have been a 🦄nice way tꦰo end the season after such a disastrous one. This tops it off…”