Russell: Red Bull domination? Norris was the key to Verstappen's win

Verstappen was able to get a good launch of the line on Sunday and defend his pole position into Turn 1 from Norris in P2.

The British Mercedes driver, having started P4 saw himself with a chance to take the last of the podium places. Alas, it was not to be due to the McLaren driver, Russell believes.

He said: "I made a good start but when Max covered Lando, I thought the normal thing to do would be for him to go to the outside to protect his position and in turn he didn't, he just stayed behind Max, he got overtaken and it rocked me in and I got overtaken so that was quite frustrating."

"But I had the feeling before the race wherever you finish turn one is where you're going to finish and unfortunately this turned out to be the case," alluding to the difficulty overtaking seems to be these days in Formula One.

Russell saw more than Red Bull Racing's sheer pace proppelling Verstappen to the win in Texas. Downplaying any talks of the Austrian team reviving themselves back into domination, the Mercedes driver pointed more to Norris' car positioning at the start.

"And obviously we saw in my sprint race yesterday I was maybe only half a tenth behind so for sure I wouldn't say they're the car to beat but definitely as a package, but since the summer break they're in an incredible place," Russell concluded.

The Brackley based outfit, since Azerbaijan, have been enjoying a much more successful period with their win in Singapore being the highlight.

Mercedes are currently locked in a fight for P2 in the Constructors' championship against Ferrari and Red Bull, which they lead, with McLaren having clinched the championship last time out at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

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