Crucially, the timing of his pit stop saw him emerge ahead of Verstappen, who had previously lost the lead of the race to eventual winner Oscar Piastri.
From there, it was simply a matter of keeping his rivals behind rather than trying to pursue the McLarens – at one point, the battle for the final podium spot covered both Mercedes, Verstappen and the notably fast Williams of Alex Albon.
READ MORE: Piastri full of praise for McLaren after ‘unbelievable’ and ‘impressive’ victory in Miami
But days after Russell identified Mercedes as the season’s third-fastest team, he took the chequered flag a whopping 37 seconds behind the lead McLaren, which is the biggest gap between P1 and P3 since Lando Norris dominated the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.
“To be honest I’m really happy to come away with P3 because I’ve been struggling this weekend personally, always on the back foot,” Russell said after the race. “Ultimately when it mattered, I got a really good result today. Well done to McLaren – they’re just down the road.”
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