George Russell apologises and fights back tears after blowing F1 pole as Max Verstappen wins wet Canadian Grand Prix

GEORGE RUSSELL apologised to his Mercedes team for an “ugly race” as he scuppered pole position to Max Verstappen.

It was a tough day in the office for the British 26-year-old who fought back tears after the race as he had to settle for third place.

Meanwhile Verstappen overcame chaos and rain to toast his third consecutive win in Canada ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris in second.

Russell, who claimed his first podium of the year. said: “It was an ugly race on my behalf. Sorry for that. I'm very sorry for that.

"It felt like a missed opportunity. We were really quick on the inters at the beginning, then Lando came through.

"Then we jumped back on the slicks. I made a couple of mistakes out there, pushing the limits and paid the price for it.

"Nevertheless, first podium of the year. We truly had a fast car this weekend and to be in the mix fighting for victory was really fun.”

The race was jam-packed with action fresh off the back of Monaco which Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton slammed for being a snooze fest after there had been no overtakes from the top ten drivers.

Verstappen said: "It was a pretty crazy race. I love it. That was a lot of fun. Those kinds of races, you need those once in a while."

Russell crawled off the line in his Mercedes at the start but just stayed in front of Max Verstappen by a whisker.

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Drama erupted from lap 17 when Verstappen was thrown into the clutches of Norris after running wide at Turn One to hand Russell some valuable breathing space.

The McLaren driver had set his sights on overtaking the Red Bull on the long straight and breezed past him to nab P2.

But Norris wasn’t done there as he overtook Russell on the straight before Max Verstappen swiped the Mercedes driver’s place, leaving him in third.

On lap 25 the first safety car was called into action as Logan Sargeant spun into the barrier on his way out of Turn Four in his Williams.

24-year-old Norris stayed out while everyone else pitted, leaving him trailing behind Verstappen and Russell in third.

Verstappen's engineer Gianpiero Lambiase aimed a sly dig at Norris’ Miami Grand Prix win in a nod to the safety car incident by saying "What goes around comes around. That's Miami back”.

Verstappen, Norris and Russell continued to squabble for first, second and third throughout.

More drama erupted as Sergio Perez wrapped up a dismal weekend by spinning out at Turn Six into the barrier and out of the race.

Cue the safety car again as more chaos saw Alex Albon come off worse with a tussle with Carlos Sainz - leaving both drivers out of the race.

It was a miserable afternoon for Ferrari in general who had earlier retired his car after suffering problems with the engine.

Piastri and Russell tussled on lap 63 at Turn 10, making contact before the British driver lost his spot to his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton sniffed the podium and used his DRS to ease past Piastri, onto the tail of Norris but Russell edged back into third with one lap to go.

Norris said: "It was chaos. It was eventful. To be honest, I felt like I drove a good race the whole time from start to finish. The first two stints were very strong.

“I had amazing pace. But then the Safety Car had me over, just like it helped me in Miami, it’s now had me back over.”