As the second half of the 2021 Formula One season kicks off, George ends Friday in P17 at the Belgium Grand Prix.

A brief rain shower before the start of the FP1 session meant George and most of the grid opted to start the session on Intermediate tyres.

15 minutes into the session, the Brit sat in P19 before switching to the Medium compound Pirelli tyres to move him up to P15.

With 20 minutes remaining, George switched to the Soft compound Pirellis and the Brit was able to improve into the top 10 with a P6.

George switched back to the Medium tyres for the remaining 10 minutes of the morning session to finish in P14.

The afternoon session started much like the morning session with a damp circuit and George beginning the session on the Intermediate tyres.

George was one of the first to take to the circuit, putting in a 1:51.835 lap time to put him into P2 after 12 minutes of the session.

As more drivers began filing out and the circuit started to dry, George pitted to change to the Hard compound Pirelli and, 15 minutes into the session, the Brit sat in P12 but at the field began to set flying laps, George was pushed down into P20.

With 30 minutes of the session remaining, George changed to the Soft Pirelli tyres and delivered a 1.46.665 lap time to move him into P13.

As the minute ticked down, George was pushed down into P17 as the rest of the field improved on their lap times. A crash for the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc brought out a red flag, halting any running with only 16 minutes remaining.

The session clock continued to count down and pitlane reopened with 10 minutes remaining.

George returned to the track to collect valuable data with the remaining minutes of the session but a crash for the Red Bull of Max Verstappen ended the session prematurely with just over two minutes remaining.

George ended the session in P17.

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George Russell – Williams Racing Driver‍

“I am happy to be back; it has been four weeks since I last drove and so it was great to get straight back into it. I think we have been very fortunate today with the weather, we got the driest parts of the day in both sessions which has been good for us and for the fans. Keeping the tyre temperatures alive and maintaining confidence in the wet parts of the track is going to be really tricky if we continue to get mixed conditions.

We have a lot to improve overnight as I think we are a little off the pace, but we have some ideas up our sleeves and so we’ll work through those. There is always a compromise and never anything that will just give you performance, so there will be some interesting conversations to see which direction we will go.”

FP3 at the Belgium Grand Prix will take place at 11am BST on Saturday August 28.