George takes P14 at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Formula 1's opening race of the 2021 season.

In the opening stage of the race, George dropped back into P16 as a first lap incident which caused a safety car to be deployed but it wasn’t long before he was fighting his way back up the grid and into P13 ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel.

George dropped back down the grid into P16 again but took advantage of a flurry of pitstops to make his way into P11 before pitting on lap 13 to change from the Soft (C4) Pirelli tyres and onto the Medium (C3) Pirelli tyres, rejoining in P16 to try and hunt down the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi.

George continued to climb up the grid, running in P10 until a second pitstop at lap 36 for the Medium (C3) Pirelli tyres and emerging in P16 again.

The British driver was able to bring his Williams FW43B to the finish line in P14, close behind the Alpine of Esteban Ocon.
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George Russell – Williams Racing Driver

"It was nice to be racing and I had a good little tussle at the beginning, making a few places and losing a few places. I thought it was a well-executed race. The first stint was tricky but the second and third were as good as can be and our relative pace was quite strong. That was the maximum today and I think our relative pace was good. I’m now looking forward to Imola and assessing where we are there.”

Formula 1 and George will be back in Imola from Friday April 16 with the first free practice session at 10:30am BST.