Williams’ George Russell missed out on a spot among the top ten in qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix by just 0.008s after a strong performance that he says was achieved “on merit”.<\/p>\n
However he will actually start the race from tenth on the grid after a penalty for impeding another driver was subsequently handed down to AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.<\/p>\n
Russell secured his place in Q2 for the eighth consecutive race on Saturday at the Red Bull Ring and came painfully close to gaining access to the final Q3 shootout.<\/p>\n
Upon learning of the 0.008s shortfall from his engineer, the Briton quipped: “Oh, you’re kidding me! Good job anyway. Free tyre choice.”<\/p>\n
It was indeed a great effort by the Williams charger who out-qualified Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
But Russell especially highlighted the performance level of his FW43B, insisting his fastest lap was achieved “on merit” and after the team had focused on fine tuning the car’s race pace.<\/p>\n
“So close, so satisfying when we get the maximum from it, and we do this a lot,” he said.<\/p>\n
“And even more so, we\u2019re putting a lot more emphasis on the Sunday pace and just trying to really maximise the car for the race pace. So let\u2019s see how it turns out tomorrow.<\/p>\n
“I think we are there on merit. We\u2019ve got a lot of quick guys behind \u2013 Ricciardo, Sainz, Vettel \u2013 but I\u2019m looking forward and we want to score some points.”<\/p>\n
Russell said that a new set-up approach initiated a few races weekends ago appeared to benefit its car as well as the circumstances.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve gone down a slightly different direction with the set-up and it seems to be paying off,” he explained.<\/p>\n
“But we\u2019ve only had a couple of races like this. We need to give it a bit more of a chance to see if this is real, throughout.<\/p>\n
“But having that confidence in the car is a big thing and today\u2019s a very calm day, not a single gust of wind or anything, I\u2019m sure that does also help us a lot. So far, so good.<\/p>\n
“Yesterday was probably the best Friday we\u2019ve ever had,” he said. “The car felt really good, let\u2019s see how that translates tomorrow.”<\/p>\n
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers<\/p>\n
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via <\/em>Facebook<\/em> and <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Williams’ George Russell missed out on a spot among the top ten in qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix by just 0.008s after a strong performance that he says was achieved “on merit”. However he will actually start the race from tenth on the grid after a penalty for impeding another driver was subsequently handed … <\/p>\n