No wonder Russell admitted to being “a bit lost for words” once he had finally made it back to the paddock, on the back of a marshal’s scooter.

“I mean, everything just turned off all of a sudden,” he reported of his failure, which came at the end of the straight leading to the final chicane, causing Russell to go straight over the grass, cutting the corner, before pulling his car up on the side of the track. “The engine stopped. No electronics. Nothing.

“I’ve got to be honest, though, I’m proud of my weekend. Pole in the sprint, won the sprint. Pole in the main race, I was leading after a good battle with Kimi. There’s not much more I could have done. So I’ll leave satisfied. I’m pretty damn frustrated, but there’s not much I can do.”

The day had dawned dark, damp and cold, as forecast. With a light drizzle preceding the race, teams were left with a bit of a conundrum; whether to start on the intermediate tyres and hope the weather worsened, or there was an early safety car, or start on the slicks. Nearly everyone chose the latter option.

McLaren, disastrously as it turned out, did not. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were put on the inters, a decision Piastri was already beginning to regret by the end of the warm-up lap.

Initially, the extra grip proved handy, as Norris managed to surge past both the Mercedes cars and into the race lead. But his joy was short-lived. By the end of the second lap both McLarens had pitted and they were miles off the pace. Norris was eventually forced to retire with a gearbox issue, while Piastri finished out of the points in 11th.

At the front, the battle between Russell and Antonelli was electric, with the racing generally following a pattern which had been laid down earlier in the weekend. Antonelli was probably the slightly faster driver, Russell the more controlled.