George Russell has demanded answers from his Mercedes team over their strategy at the Barcelona Grand Prix.

The Mercedes man started on pole position but entered the last few laps of the race in third.

He gave up the race lead to eventual winner Lewis Hamilton and was eventually overtaken by team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

The Italian’s engine failed late on, meaning Russell would get P2 in the end, but the Brit wasn’t happy.

Speaking post-race, he said: “Firstly, congrats to Lewis as well because he had a really impressive race. I don’t think we expected to see that sort of pace from him and Ferrari. It’s special to see him back on the top step.

“From my side, it was not straightforward. In hindsight, the three-stop would probably have suited my style a little bit better because I was struggling a lot towards the end of the stints. I’ll just take the positives away: It was a clean Friday, clean Saturday and I came away with 18 points. That’s 18 more than I’ve done in the last two races.

“Lewis probably would have come back through anyway, but without the VSC he would have pitted behind us and who knows what would have happened? I was just struggling towards the end of the stints. I need to review why that was.

“On the first stint I felt really comfortable on the mediums. I felt we pitted really early. Lewis had committed to the three-stop and we should have committed to our own strategy.

“It’s something I want to pick up with the team, because I was managing quite a lot at the start and still eking out that gap to Lewis, and then I thought we’d actually converted to a three [stop]. When they told me we were staying on the two [stop], yeah, that was a challenge.”