Russell at a loss to explain lack of pace compared to his teammate, as Toto Wolf leaps to his defence.

George Russell headed to Austin with one objective... to win. Indeed, to claim the title he needed to win the majority of the remaining races.

Meanwhile, the media constantly reminded us that it was his teammate who needed to win, with Russell finishing no higher than ninth.

So, as the Briton crossed the finish line in eighth, someone, somewhere had clearly decided not only to not put Russell out of his misery but prolong it for another week until Mexico.

"Just not being quick enough, to be honest," he told Sky Sports in the moments after the race, when asked why he's struggling. "I need to try and understand why it is," he added. "It's strange when you're so far off, hopefully there's some answers somewhere, but I don't have one."

In a subsequent interview he shed more light on his issue.

"The pace wasn't good on the first stint," he admitted. "But when I came out of the pits on the hards, I probably did six laps where I was lapping the same pace as Kimi. But then I caught up with Oscar and I just couldn't overtake.

"Six good laps, fifty bad laps," he sighed. "I want to understand why the pace was so bad on the first stint.

"The penalty was a bit ridiculous as well," he added, "but that was the least of my worries after such a bad weekend."

The penalty was for running wide and gaining an advantage over Piastri on the opening lap, ironically, Russell spent the last 30 laps of the race staring at the Australian's rear wing.

"For me, as long as we win the constructors', that's the main thing," he insisted, Lewis Hamilton now just one point behind and Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen closing in. "For the team, obviously I'd like to finish best of the rest but P2, P3, P5 is not champion so it doesn't mean anything."

Earlier in the week, Helmut Marko claimed that 2026 had been Russell's best chance to claim the title and that he would never get another opportunity once teammate Antonelli has been crowned.

"I think he's wrong on George," said Toto Wolff. "George has all the ability. I think the car doesn't suit him.

"I think that at the beginning of the season it's difficult to cope with a situation where you're feeling like 'this is my year to come', and then you have this wunderkind on the other side that starts to really chip away. I believe that in a new season, George, if we provide him a quick car, has absolutely what it needs to win a championship.

"George, for all of us in the team, is a champion and has won in every category. I think he merits to be put in the group of the very best," the Austrian added.

"This year we see this variability in results. When we land the car in the way that suits him, he's absolutely fine. But when it drops out of the operational window, he struggles. He struggles more than maybe Kimi. And that is on us.

"We just have to work it out. Because George is not half a second slower, three-tenths slower than Kimi. That's absolutely not the case.

"So what is it that he doesn't like? What is it that we need to do in terms of modifying the car, setting it up in a different way for him to go fast? Because it's all there, intelligence, ability, determination."