George Russell admits that he is struggling to comprehend what's going on as he slips further behind his teammate.

Despite the disappointment of Saturday, when he admitted to being "bamboozled" by his lack of pace, things were to get worse, much worse for the Mercedes driver.

Though much of the afternoon was spent behind Isack Hadjar, a podium finish was still within reach for the Briton.

While a 5s penalty for speeding in the pitlane appeared to lay the dream to rest, the Safety Car period and subsequent red flag, meant it was still possible.

However, this is when it went awry for the Mercedes driver.

"Staying out, staying out," Russell was told by his race engineer as he approached the pits under the Safety Car.

"We have to go through the pit lane, get tyres," said the Briton, "get the tyres ready to swap.

Then, as he approached his pit slot, he asked: "What am I doing?"

In the subsequent confusion his mechanics got to work.

Back on track, Russell asked if he was supposed to have changed his tyres. "Negative," came the reply. "We'll discuss that later."

Consequently, when the race resumed after the red-flag period, he was ordered to do two racing laps before serving his drive through, thus dropping from third, to eleventh and then fourteenth.

During the stoppage, Russell had spoken to the stewards but to no avail.

"I'm flat, I'm beyond frustration," he said at race end. "I'm in a state of struggling to comprehend what is going on.

"The team told me there's nothing I did wrong in the pit lane," he added, "I pressed the limiter before the entry, I released it after the exit, but there was a software issue.

"A five-second penalty is not ideal," he continued, "but its not the end of the world, but then with the pit stop, didn't serve it, drive-through penalty, the punishment doesn't fit the crime, and I went from P3 to zero points.

"I wish I could take some responsibility for the car breaking down in Canada or the penalties today," he added, "but it's been completely outside of my control, and that is an incredibly difficult pill to swallow.

"I don't ever really believe in good luck or bad luck, but when I look at the season as a whole, leading the race in Canada... break down. Could have been on the podium today... zero points. Leading the race in Japan... safety car came out 10 seconds after a pit stop... there's not a lot I can do. The whole season could look totally different."

Asked about the original speeding penalty, he said: "The team tell me there's nothing I did wrong with the speed in the pit lane", adding that his team described it as a "software issue".

"Clearly that's our mistake," said Toto Wolff of the stop that earned the drive-through. "We need to look at our communication, whether we actually expected him to come in. Because I think it was... what I remember is about staying out and not coming in. Nevertheless, you've got to be on it to hold him, and we didn't."

"I got the drive-through because there was a lot of confusion at the last minute," said Russell. "I was meant to be staying on track, but then the FIA ordered the cars through the pit lane. I was asking the team, am I stopping for tyres or not? I didn't get an answer, but I saw my set of tyres there.

"Everything just happened too quickly, and I guess the mechanics didn't get the message that they had to leave the car for five seconds. Then I was on the radio saying I'm willing to serve the penalty the next lap because I had a 20-second gap to Gasly behind me, but the rules say, you know, we didn't serve the penalty correctly, and the punishment's a drive-through.

"With the software glitch, I probably gained one tenth of a second in the whole pit lane, and lost 13 positions with the penalties."

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