“I mean this sport is just so funny how it swings so quickly,” Russell said. “Friday was a great day. Saturday, pace in the Sprint [was] arguably equal quickest. Qualified second, and then today… bad start, pace was nowhere.”

After continuing to drop behind the frontrunners, he peeled off into the pits, where he endured a stop of seven seconds that saw him return to traffic on the track behind the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

RACE START: Enjoy the race start at the Qatar GP as Verstappen snatches the lead while three cars tangle behind

Both Russell and his team mate Lewis Hamilton were heard over the radio complaining that the car was not turning the way they wanted it to, and the former suffered even more on what he deemed to be unsuitable hard tyres.

To top it all off, he was noted for a Safety Car infringement and subsequently handed a five-second time penalty in the closing laps – though he was able to keep his P4 finish as Pierre Gasly was 7.6s behind when the chequered flag fell.