The honorary Brazilian citizen fought back and looked likely to finish second behind Russell in the final stages of the race when Lando Norris pulled to a halt and triggered another safety car.
It allowed Hamilton to pull up to Russell, who asked over the radio, whether the drivers should hold station to secure the result. “You are racing,” came the reply. “Just keep respectful,” as Hamilton loomed large in his mirrors.
“Lewis was super fast,” said Russell. “I thought it was going to be a really difficult end with the pressure.” But he didn’t give Hamilton a chance to attack and crossed the line for the win.
After getting out of his car, he sat down in tears as he came to terms with the result. “What an amazing feeling, a huge thank you to the team for making this possible,” he said. “It has been a rollercoaster season.
“On the in-lap all of these memories came flooding back – starting out with my mum and dad in go-karting, all the support I’ve had from friends and family and my girlfriend.”
Tearful Russell takes a moment for his debut F1 win to sink in
Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
More significant than the debut win, though, is the performance of the Mercedes. The Austin update was brought with 2023 in mind, the team hoping to feed its learning from the new parts into next year’s car.
“We haven’t changed anything,” said Shovlin, speaking to Sky Sports. “It’s the exact same car we had last week and that we had in Austin. It’s been working really well.
“It was a long road we had to walk with development and understanding the problems. We did kind of write this season off when we realised how far behind we were.
“The focus was always the learning, to understand the problem and make sure we could develop for next year.”