The British driver was following behind the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, attempting to close up on fresher tyres on the final lap of the race.

However, Alonso appeared to brake earlier into the corner, catching Russell off guard and sending him spinning into the gravel trap before bouncing back onto the track and tipping over.

“Red flag, red flag, red flag,” he begged on the team radio. “I’m in the middle of the track. Red flag, red flag! Red, red, red, red, red. I’m in the middle. Red! F***ing hell.”

However, rather than obeying Russell’s demands and bringing out the red flag, the stewards opted to call upon the virtual safety car, allowing the nearby cars to crawl past his stricken W15 for a final tour of the Albert Park circuit.

Giving his thoughts on the incident with Alonso – which is being investigated by the FIA – Russell told Sky Sports F1: “My take is I’ve gone off and that’s on me. I was half a second behind Fernando 100m before the corner then suddenly he came towards me extremely quick and I was right on his gearbox. I don’t know if he had a problem or not.

“He’s off to the stewards and that’s a bit bizarre in a circumstance like this. I’ve got nothing more to say right now. I need to see everything, just disappointed to end the race like that.

“It’s clear he braked 100m before the corner and was back on the throttle again and took the corner normally. We’ve already seen the data of that.”

Russell’s crash compounded a miserable weekend for the Silver Arrows, who left Melbourne without a point to show for their efforts following a lap-17 mechanical retirement for Lewis Hamilton.

With Alonso and Lance Stroll bringing home P6 and P7 finishes, Toto Wolff’s team have now dropped behind Aston Martin in the standings with just 26 points from three Grands Prix.