Yas Marina Circuit was the host to an exciting yet controversial title-deciding race that started with just 19 drivers after Haas’ Nikita Mazepin tested positive for COVID-19, and ended with 14 after 5 other competitors retired from the race.

One of the drivers that DNF’d was Williams driver George Russell, who had to retire on lap 26 due to a gearbox issue in his FW43B.

“We had a gearbox issue which ultimately ended our race and may have been caused by something flying into the airbox. We need to review whether that was the case but there's nothing we can do about that, so it's unfortunate to finish our season in that way.

“The important thing though is that we sealed P8 in the Constructors' Championship, which was much more than we could have hoped for this year and was our goal at the start of the weekend. I'm proud of what we've achieved as a team and I'm grateful to everyone at Grove for their hard work.”

The Briton, Mercedes driver for the 2022 season, was not shy when it came to expressing his disagreement on social media about the final result, in which we saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen become F1 World Champion after overtaking Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the race following Michael Masi's u-turn in allowing lapped cars between the Dutchman and Brit unlap themselves.

“THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!!,” he tweeted immediately after the race.

“Max is an absolutely fantastic driver who has had an incredible season and I have nothing but huge respect for him, but what just happened is absolutely unacceptable. I cannot believe what we’ve just seen," he said, expecting a better result for his future team.

THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!!

— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) December 12, 2021