George Russell apologised to his Williams team after an early error undid his strong qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix.
In the wet on Saturday, the British driver was able to show off his skills as he matched the pace of Ferrari and missed out on Q3 by less than a tenth in P12.
On Sunday, however, a trip across the gravel at Turn 6 soon put him back down the field, where he would stay with only teammate Nicholas Latifi behind him.
“Apologies to the team, I completely messed that up at the start,” Russell said.
“I made a good start, maintained position and as trying to hold my position around the outside of Turn 6 and I just completely lost it, there was no grip up there.
“Needless to say, apologies to the team and I will bounce back next week.”
Ultimately, it was a moment that likely didn’t mean all that much in terms of Russell’s final result as Williams were unable to maintain their competitiveness from qualifying.
“Our pace was particularly slow today, has been now for two weeks in a row,” Russell conceded.
“We come into the race thinking our race pace is as strong as our qualifying pace, but it turned out to be the opposite way. We need to understand that and improve.”