“Maybe P8 would have been the maximum” – George Russell barely managed to finish with points at the Russian Grand Prix after starting the race in P3.
George Russell has been a stupendous performer for Williams this season, and he showed it again this weekend.
P10 today and points in four of the last five races. It may not seem like the result we wanted from P3 on the grid, but we’ve come so far this season we can be proud of that stat. 👊 pic.twitter.com/86hCz7btRd
— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) September 26, 2021
After qualifying magnificently in P3 on Saturday, Russell did well to hold off the faster cars during the initial stages of the Russian GP. But, as expected, he went down the standings after his first pit stop.
A sudden downpour during the last few laps meant Williams switched him to used inters, which helped them score a point. This should have disappointed him, considering he started the race from a podium place, but the Mercedes-bound driver says he is happy with how the race panned out.
“We knew before the race it didn’t matter if we stopped late, stopped early, the cars were much faster and had so much advantage on us they’d always find a way past. But it was a really good stint.
“I really struggled on the inters at the end and I think – I don’t know about the others, but I think I was one of the few drivers on used inters because we used all of our tyres in qualifying, whereas obviously everyone was saving theirs for Q3, the final run of Q3, which ended up to be slicks.
“I think we lost out a lot compared to the guys on the new tyres, because from the greasy conditions, the tyres were already like almost going to a slick,” he explained. “So maybe P8 would have been the maximum. But regardless, I think P10, we have some more points, we could have dreamt for more but realistically that was very strong.”
