British Formula One driver George Russell finished eighth in the 2024 Miami Grand Prix at Miami International Autodrome and secured four valuable points.

A strong start in Practice

George and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team began the weekend’s only Free Practice session by monitoring their new updates, including a new floor and sidepods.

With only 60 minutes of Practice this weekend, the session was vital for collecting data. George’s first run of the session was on Medium tyres.

Later in the session, George did some single lap work before continuing to collect data on the Medium tyre. Then, with ten minutes left of the weekend’s sole Practice session, George headed back out onto the track on Soft tyres. With his first lap on the Softs, George set the fastest time of the session at the time.

After another quick lap, despite an issue in sector two, he finished the session in P4.

WATCH: 2024 MIAMI GRAND PRIX FP1 HIGHLIGHTS

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Out in SQ2 by a mere 0.013 seconds

Following a good first Sprint Qualifying segment, George safely got through to SQ2 in P6.

Taking to the track on Medium tyres for SQ2, George set a personal best in the first sector but finished the lap only 0.013 seconds away from getting through to SQ3.

WATCH: 2024 MIAMI GRAND PRIX SPRINT QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS

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The Sunshine State's Sprint

Starting the Sprint from P11, George opted for the Medium tyre.

After an incident at beginning of the race, a Yellow Flag and subsequent Safety Car came out. On lap four, the race restarted with George in P14.

He battled with Zhou Guanyu throughout the race before defending from Alex Albon in the later stages of the Sprint. Concluding the 19-lap Sprint, George classified P12.

WATCH: 2024 MIAMI GRAND PRIX SPRINT HIGHLIGHTS

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Top ten in Qualifying

George set a solid lap to begin the first segment of Qualifying. He ended Q1 in P8, safely through to the next segment.

In Q2, George had some difficulty with grip, particularly during his first run due to a drop in temperatures. However, he was able to secure a lap that got him through to Q3.

George initially came out on Soft tyres to set his first lap of the final Qualifying segment. For his final run of Q3, George switched to Medium tyres to attempt to set a faster lap as the difference between the Soft and Medium tyres was marginal.

Unable to improve on his initial lap, George qualified P7.

WATCH: 2024 MIAMI GRAND PRIX SPRINT HIGHLIGHTS

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Points in Miami

Choosing the Medium tyre, George unfortunately lost places after starting P7. Throughout his first stint, George was trying to treat his tyres carefully while also completing a series of overtakes. After a battle with Nico Hülkenberg on lap 12, George climbed up to eighth.

At the end of lap 24, George pitted for Hards and came out P12 into a group of drivers. He later overtook Esteban Ocon for P11 before a Yellow Flag and Safety Car came out.

Starting from P9 after the Safety Car period ended, the remainder of George's race was consistent. Though he had some difficulties with his Hard tyres during the final stages of the race, he managed to finish P8 and collected valuable points in a double points finish for the team.

The 2024 F1 season will resume on 17-19 May for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

WATCH: 2024 MIAMI GRAND PRIX HIGHLIGHTS

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George Russell, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team driver:

A massive well done to Lando and McLaren. He truly deserves it, and all told, he probably deserves to have more than one victory already by now. We’ve been racing each other for a long time; he’s put so much hard work in, and I had no doubts that he would win in F1. I’m very happy for him.

My race today was difficult. I lost a few positions at the start and then in the final stint, I had no pace on the Hard tyre and was struggling a lot. We will go away and assess why that was. Our lack of speed was quite unexpected, whilst Lewis had a strong race so there was definite speed in the car.

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