There was relief on both sides of the Williams garage after George Russell and Nicholas Latifi secured Q2 places in Emilia Romagna Grand Prix qualifying.
In Russell's case, his 100% record against teammates at the Grove-based team appeared very much under threat as his Canadian partner had the edge throughout practice and Q1.
Indeed, the Briton came close to an almost calamitous early exit at Imola.
“It was a very scrappy session. I only made the line in Q1 by five seconds – if it wasn’t for that I would have been out, so I’m definitely pleased," he said.
Eventually, Russell would keep his now 40-race streak of being the lead Williams on the grid alive and was frustrated to miss out on Q3 by just over a tenth of a second in P12.
“I think ahead of the weekend I thought Q3 was maybe possible this weekend, but after all of the practice sessions, I thought absolutely no way and I’d be doing good to get out of Q1," George admitted.
“I was just struggling, I don’t know why. The car felt good but I was just off the pace and Nicholas was driving really, really well and has been fast every single session, but we managed to do a really good job in Q2 when it mattered.
“So [we have] got a bit to review to try and understand why I was off the pace before quali, but I feel I’m in a good place for tomorrow.
“I think we’ve made changes that have improved the car, improved the straight-line speed which will help us in a race situation, so I’m really happy with the changes we’ve made and to be able to do the job, in the end, was great."
Also Read:
As for Latifi, arguably his strongest performance in F1 so far almost didn't happen as he admits Williams got a helping hand from the red flag.
“[I am] very pleased overall, especially with Q1," he stated. "We almost didn’t even make it out for qualifying, I’m not sure if the cameras were on the car at all but obviously I had the crash, a little bump up the wall in FP3.
“And even though we did get back out there to do laps, there were still some kind of residual things the team needed to check over and if it wasn’t for the red flag with Yuki’s [Tsunoda] crash I wouldn’t have made it out for qualifying.
“Kind of thankful for that. Obviously unfortunate for Yuki, but it gave us the opportunity to repair the car, put it back together and a good Q1, really pleased with the lap.
“[With] Q2 [I am a] little bit disappointed," Latifi added after claiming 14th. "I just didn’t get the improvement I needed to, a little mistake at the beginning of the lap but overall with the result I’m quite pleased.”
