Russell says Raikkonen clash cost him points but 'our time will come'

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George Russell believes points were possible had he not been hit by Kimi Raikkonen during the Eifel Grand Prix.

The Finn's record-breaking 323rd race start was marred by the collision at Turn 1, for which he got a 10-second penalty and saw the Williams driver retire with a broken left-rear suspension.

“It was obviously frustrating,” Russell said. “I actually overtook Sebastian [Vettel] in the chicane before, but he then got the run on me on the exit, which I don’t think was shown on the TV.

“[That] allowed him to have the DRS and obviously Kimi was behind. I was on the outside, I left plenty of space, but I think Kimi just locked up behind Sebastian and then lost the rear.

“Sometimes it’s racing, we’re all pushing hard and it’s not easy sometimes," the Briton conceded. "But it’s frustrating because the car was feeling good and the way the race went I think we could have scored points.

"It’s all going against us at the moment, unfortunately.”

Russell's case was somewhat proven as Romain Grosjean and Antonio Giovinazzi completed the points scorers at the Nurburgring.

And George was left frustrated at how it is always Williams' rivals in the right place at the right time in such races.

“I’m realistic and as nice as it would be to score a point or two or three, ultimately the car is not quick enough,” he accepted.

“We need to continue to work really hard to bring more performance to the car because we don’t want to be lucking into these events, we want to be there on merit and ultimately that’s where we are at the moment.

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“The likes of Haas and Alfa, things have just gone their way really in these races.

"They are no quicker than us and I don’t personally believe they’ve done anything better than us, things have just gone their way when there’s been these very specific opportunities and it hasn’t for us."

However, speaking earlier in the weekend, Russell does believe its only a matter of when not if, he scores his first points in F1.

“Over the course of the last few races we’ve been putting more emphasis on to our Sunday performance as it is clear that on Saturday we are performing very well and we are extracting everything from the car,” he explained.

“We are understanding this car better now that the races are progressing, and it is definitely going to help us in the coming races.

“We have to be patient but our time will come. We have to make sure that we are in the mix, which is what we are doing with her qualifying performances.”

 

         

 

 

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