George Russell celebrated the good performance of the W13 in Austria, even after a spin in Q3 that took away any chance of pole during qualifying
Despite the accident he suffered during Q3, George Russell finished fifth in the classification for the sprint race on Friday (8), at the Red Bull Ring. However, the bittersweet taste remains of who could go further and fight, who knows, for the pole position at the Austrian circuit.
The Briton from Mercedes analyzed his performance during qualifying in Spielberg before the spin that took away any chance of climbing the grid.
"We gave positive signals, we know that we brought some new features to the car. My interpretation is that I went the wrong way with the fine tuning for practice. I feel good physically, but I still worry that we won't be able to get the car back for the sprint race," said Russell.
George did not fail to praise Mercedes' performance with teammate, Lewis Hamilton, who also crashed during Q3 and was only tenth. "I'm not getting carried away though, Lewis was doing a phenomenal job, he flew today. As a team, this was probably our best qualifying of the season, but our worst in terms of results. That's racing."
Russell, now, is banking on his performance in the race so that he can pick up interesting points in the sprint race at the Red Bull Ring. "We usually have a better pace than during qualifying, and we are definitely in contention."
Also fifth in the Drivers' World Championship standings, the Mercedes driver will now be looking to get back into the points after the crash at Silverstone. 'Personally, I'm going through some pretty tough races, but tomorrow we have a chance to make up for this moment,' Russell finished.
GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and INREAL TIME all the activities of the weekend's Austrian F1 GP. On Saturday, the second free practice session opens the day at 7:30 am (GMT-3). The sprint race starts at 11:30am.