George Russell made positive inroads for ROKiT Williams Racing on Friday in Mexico, making his debut at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez ahead of the 18th race of the 2019 Formula One season.

Heading to Mexico City, both George and ROKiT Williams Racing anticipated a difficult weekend ahead, with the high-altitude location of the circuit not suiting the team’s 2019 package.

Conducting aero testing in first practice, George completed 26 laps of running en route to the 19th fastest time of the session, outpacing Nicholas Latifi who took Robert Kubica’s place for FP1 in the second Williams by 1.018s

Returning to the track for the second session of the weekend, George successfully bettered his previous personal best on the circuit, improving by over half a second to set a 1:19.968 lap that was worthy of 18th - 0.212s ahead of Kubica who returned to the cockpit.
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George Russell - ROKiT Williams Racing Driver

“With 25 percent less downforce than every other circuit because of the altitude, there was a lot of sliding around but it was definitely a cool experience driving in front of the baseball stadium. There were a few positives to take away from today; our high fuel pace seemed relatively good and we gathered some more data this morning back-to-backing the front wings, so that was encouraging.”

With one final practice session scheduled later in the week, George will contest qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix ahead of Sunday’s 71-lap race.

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Photographs Courtesy of XPB Images

Additional Press Content Courtesy of ROKiT Williams Racing

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