Russell wa♑s ❀enjoying a strong race in Las Vegas, running in contention for the podium.

How♊ever, when Verstappen looked to ov🐬ertake him, the pair collided.

Russell was given a five-secon🗹d time penalty as a result, dropping him from fou꧙rth to eighth. 

Speaking to Sky after the race, Russell reflecte🌠d on his clash with the three-tim♛e world champion.

“Another massively missed opportunity this weekend,” he said. “The incid🦂ent with Max was totally my fault. I didn’t see him. Totally in my blind spot going around Tur🎃n 11.

“I was expecting the overtake there. You’ve got the long DRS afterwards. We were on course for an easy podium after. It was pret💎ty straightforward.

“Recovered to P4, the five seconds knocks us down to P8. This s🐬eason 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 British driver struggled to hide his frustrati﷽on.

“Pace was strong but not as strong a🤡s the Red Bulls and the Ferraris,” he said. “I think, when you have a fast car, luck is always on your side. When you’re on the back foot, luck is neve🐲r on your side.

“Ultimately we just need to keep on pushing, go into next week and see what we can d🌼o. It was just on the wheel cover. If anything, it would have helped my graining because it would have given me extra cooling. I think we had a few cuts in th🍎at 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 to end the season after such a disastrous o🧔ne. This tops🎀 it off…”