George Russell gave another demonstration of his talent with a stunning performance at the legendary Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

The Tydd St Giles driver, who races for Carlin, was in action in Round Five of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.

In race three, Russell, starting 21st on the grid, made up 18 places during a thrilling drive to clinch a memorable third place finish.

Qualifying left Russell frustrated as both sessions were compromised by flags and mistakes from other drivers.

Russell said: “We were extremely unlucky in qualifying, on my best two laps before the rain came in qualifying 1, the driver way ahead of me made a mistake and came on right in front of me which compromised me a lot. I was fairly certain P3 was possible but we had to settle for P11.

“Then for Q2 it was a drying track, and on my best lap, the red flag came out 3 seconds before I crossed the line, so I had my best lap deleted.”

Race 1 saw a lighting start, pushing George up to 6th place overall. Race 2 was turbulent to say the least - a number of incidents rested in only three race laps overall. Starting 22nd on the grid gave Russell little chance to push his way up the field, although he rose to 13th.

Race 3 saw some excellent race craft and tyre management, resulting in a third place finish.

On the race, Russell said: “It was a 50 50 call with slicks or wets, but we opted for slicks which turned out to be the right call.

“We started P21 and made a great start. From then on we kept on pushing and we had great pace. I was catching the guys ahead of me and managed to get passed them quickly. Before we knew it we was in the battle for P3 and managed to pull it off.

“It was a great result to come away with a podium after such an unlucky qualifying, but now we can go to the next race and really push for more.”

Russell is fifth in the overall standings with 91 points. Leading the pack is Charles Leclerc on 217.5 points.

The next race weekend is June 26-28 at Norisring in Germany.