Russell on Hamilton team orders: 'Want the best for the team'

George Russell has praised Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton after the seven-time F1 World Champion moved aside during the Miami Grand Prix.

Mercedes took advantage of the tyre degradation experienced by Ferrari to finish ahead, with Russell P4 and Lewis Hamilton overtaking Charles Leclerc in the closing stages to finish P6 after starting in P13 on the grid.

While it was an encouraging result for the team, Russell says they still have work to do to catch up to Aston Martin – who scored another podium with Fernando Alonso – and close the gap to Red Bull.

"A very satisfying race for us, we finished P4 on merit. To jump ahead of the Ferraris was really satisfying and [we] couldn't have done any more," he said to media, including RacingNews365.com.

"[It was] was a more normal day for us after the challenges in qualifying, but of course [there is] still work to at least jump ahead of Aston Martin and close the gap to Red Bull."

Russell: Good relationship with Hamilton

Mercedes instructed Hamilton to move over for Russell who was on a different tyre strategy midway through the race, which enabled him to fight for P4 with Carlos Sainz.

Russell managed to pull off an overtake on Sainz into Turn 11 with the aid of DRS, which he described as needing "a lot of commitment" due to the tyre marbles offline.

"The move on Carlos was really quite enjoyable, probably the fairest," the Briton explained.

"[It was a ] good move that required a lot of commitment, because this track is so dirty offline that I wasn't too sure how much grip I would have had or if I could make it stick.

"Thanks to Lewis for letting me by in those situations and allowing me to get on with my race, [he] obviously was in a different position. We've got a really good relationship at the moment and we only want the best for the team."