George ends Friday in P17 ahead of Formula One’s first-ever Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

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Taking to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the first time ever, George began the session on a set of Medium compound Pirelli tyres, slotting himself into P8 with a 1.35.760 lap time on his first run before being quickly knocked down into P11.

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The Brit pitted with 30 minutes of the session remaining to switch onto the Soft tyres to move into the top 10 before returning to the pits for the final time to switch back onto the Medium tyres.

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George ended FP1 in P17 as he began familiarising himself with the Saudi circuit.

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Under the floodlights and in conditions more representative of race day, FP2 got underway and George took to the track on a set of Hard tyres and put himself into P19 initially.

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George pitted early in the session to change onto a set of Soft tyres, moving into P17 on his first run before improving into P14 by the mid-point of the session.

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George returned to the pits for the final time, re-emerging on Hard tyres with only 18minutes to continue collecting valuable data about the unfamiliar track.

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A late red flag for the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc ended the session early with George ending the day in P17.

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George Russell – Williams Racing Driver

It was very fun out there today. It is an incredibly fast track and it punishes you heavily if you make a mistake. You must be very precise with where you are positioning the car and tomorrow in Qualifying it will be very tricky. It will require lots of commitment on those one or two flying laps, particularly through the high-speed corners, so I am excited for that as I am sure it will be very exhilarating. The car was feeling nice to drive today and it was quite close in the midfield with other teams such as Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo. I think a lot of people were struggling to get the tyres working on the first timed lap, particularly on the soft Pirelli compound, as preparation doesn’t seem so straightforward. If you get the tyres in the right window, I think there will be plenty of opportunity so we will be putting a lot of emphasis on trying to get that right overnight.

FP3 for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will get underway at 2 pm GMT on Saturday, December 4.

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