George Russell was more than satisfied with 17th despite missing out on Q2 by less than a tenth in Austrian Grand Prix qualifying.
The gains Williams hinted at in pre-season were vindicated as the British driver out-paced both Alfa Romeo’s and matched the Haas drivers, a stark contrast to the 1.1s gap that separated them from the rest of the grid last year in Spielberg.
And though there was a tinge of disappointment at not making Q2 for the second time in his career, Russell is pleased the team can fight.
“Today has exceeded my expectations, I knew we had made a step forward, but I didn’t think we would be in this position,” he said.
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“I thought we’d be still on the back row of the grid, but I’m pleased, we think we did a very good job as a team to get the most out of our car.
“I think we were less than a tenth away from Q2… which is positive. I’m a little bit gutted we didn’t just creep in, let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
The actual gap between Russell and Romain Grosjean in 15th was a mere 0.073s and that the Mercedes junior believes could have more than overcome
“Unfortunately, we missed the slipstream that we were aiming for on my previous lap, that cost me about two tenths, but it was definitely a very good effort,” he added.
“We have made a big step forward, and this is the closest we have been on pure pace.”
As for teammate Nicholas Latifi, he recovered pretty well from a crash in final practice to finish within six-tenths of his teammate, albeit P20.
“I am pleased with my first qualifying session considering how this morning went. I made a silly mistake in FP3 and I was unable to get the laps in to fully prepare myself for qualifying,” the Canadian said.
“But I am pretty happy with the pace, and more so because I know there is some time left in me and some time that we can find with the car. We have to go from there and hopefully, we have a clean race tomorrow.”
