Martin Brundle felt so sorry for 25-year-old F1 driver at Brazilian GP today

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Mercedes driver George Russell had a race to forget in Brazil as he slipped down the order before eventually retiring.

Commentating on the race for Sky Sports F1, Martin Brundle felt sorry for the 25-year-old Brit.

There was plenty of anticipation going into the race that Mercedes could do something positive at Interlagos.

They had qualified fifth and sixth and benefitted from Charles Leclerc’s early retirement and a sluggish start from the Aston Martin’s during the initial lights out.

However, a big crash involving Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen saw a second restart take place where both Mercedes still managed to maintain their places.

Unfortunately, they both started to fall away with the car clearly not enjoying the conditions.

George Russell had a miserable race in Brazil before Mercedes told him to retire the car.

Not that it would have affected his points tally when he had to park the car in the garage as he was falling out of the top ten anyway.

Mercedes star Russell has race to forget in Brazil

During the early stages of the Grand Prix, Russell was stuck behind Lewis Hamilton before being passed by Sergio Perez.

He was also being told by the team to look after the car and manage his performance and Brundle said: “Yeah, he’s kind of between a rock and a hard place, now isn’t he?

“They want him to maintain position but look after those tyres and try and find a bit of speed somewhere else.

“He’s not loading his tyres with a heavy fuel load as well, like going through Mergulho corner, it’s an anti-clockwise track so the left-hand tyres are doing an awful lot of work anyway.

“And also between turn 10 and all the way back round to turn six, your front tyre doesn’t do that much, it’s a bit of a passenger, which is why you see them locking quite a lot going into turn one.”

He may have been jealous of the start and race his fellow countryman Lando Norris had in his McLaren, although he still has that solitary victory he can laud over his close friend.

Russell will hope that he and Mercedes’s fortunes change when they leave Brazil and head to Las Vegas.

The race is a complete unknown and the form from previous street circuits is the most that the teams can read into their potential fortunes in Nevada.

The 25-year-old has had a middling season but will know how important it is to finish on a high.