George Russell is hoping the Belgian weather can assist in the race after a surprise Q2 appearance in qualifying at Spa.
The Briton had lowered expectations for this weekend, believing his draggy Williams car would see it struggle against the teams around them.
However, the poor performance of the three Ferrari-powered teams has been worse, leaving Russell battling with the two Prancing Horses in Sunday’s race.
“They’ve been struggling all weekend and battling with them for spots on the grid was very unexpected,” he said of the Scuderia post-session.
“Even for us to get into Q2, we knew on paper this is a circuit that doesn’t suit the characteristics of our car, it felt absolutely great and I was really pleased to get through to Q2.
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“I have no idea [where the pace came from] to be honest.
“Even in FP3 I was 18th-slowest and struggling with the car, but it all just got hooked-up in qualifying.
“And it was exhilarating, probably one of the best qualifyings we’ve had all year to put it into perspective, and we’ve had some good ones so far,” Russell added.
“You can’t see but I’m grinning under this mask.”
Now though George is hoping the forecast for rain on Sunday proves accurate, believing it will be his only chance to move forward.
“100%,” was his response. “The reality is we won’t be going forward if it’s dry tomorrow, we have two Ferraris ahead of us for goodness sake.
“Hopefully the heavens open and we can capitalise on some mixed conditions.”
Teammate Nicholas Latifi will start 19th after being caught out by Kevin Magnussen’s off at Stavelot at the end of Q1.
But the Canadian is confident of a more competitive race.
“Definitely, I’m not sure whereabouts George was in Q1 in terms of relative pace to them but I think I could have matched George’s pace without those issues,” he said on if he could challenge Ferrari.
“So I think the qualifying pace was still there relative to them, which is surprising, but that’s more something for them to worry about, but for sure in the race, we’ll be looking to fight the other cars.”
