George Russell is again looking to break his points duck with Williams after just missing out on Q3 at the Styrian Grand Prix.
The Briton equalled his best qualifying result with the Grove-based team in 11th, only 0.008s slower than Lance Stroll in Q2 at the Red Bull Ring.
But a grid penalty for Yuki Tsunoda means Russell will start from P10 with a free tyre choice on Sunday, and he is keen to not let this opportunity slip.
“So close [to Q3], but it’s so satisfying when we get the maximum from it, and we do this a lot,” he said of his performance on Saturday.
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“And even more so, we’re putting a lot more emphasis on the Sunday pace and just trying to really maximise the car for the race pace. So let’s see how it turns out tomorrow.
“I think we are there on merit. We’ve got a lot of quick guys behind – Ricciardo, Sainz, Vettel – but I’m looking forward and we want to score some points.”
Translating his impressive single-lap pace over a race distance has been the main problem for Russell this season.
But after his best finish of the year in P12 at Circuit Paul Ricard, the Mercedes junior explained progress has been made.
“We’ve gone down a slightly different direction with the set-up and it seems to be paying off,” he revealed.
“We’ve 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.
“But having that confidence in the car is a big thing and today’s a very calm day, not a single gust of wind or anything, I’m sure that does also help us a lot. So far, so good.
“Yesterday was probably the best Friday we’ve ever had,” he added. “The car felt really good, let’s see how that translates tomorrow.”
