George completes encouraging Tuscan GP practice
George Russell got re-acquainted with the Mugello Circuit in Northern Italy as the Williams Racing driver participated in practice in preparation for the Tuscan Grand Prix.
The 22-year-old last raced at the 5.254km-long venue in 2014 when competing in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Series and took to the track on Friday morning for the opening practice session of the weekend.
Over the course of 90-minutes of running, George completed 29 laps to carefully refine the set-up of his FW43 car, producing the 16th-fastest time of the session with a 1:19.478s run using the Medium tyres.
Despite getting red-flagged on two occasions following an accident for Lando Norris and a collision between Sergio Perez and Kimi Raikkonen, George successfully extended his lap count by 33 in FP2.
Focussing on qualifying pace before switching his attention to race simulations, the British driver was again classified in 16th at the end of the day, shaving 0.635s off his previous personal best lap by producing a 1:18.843s lap.
George Russell – Williams Racing Driver
It was awesome out there today. It is always fun to come to a proper great circuit with lots of character, it’s undulating and punishes you if you make a mistake. The speeds are very high, so it was good fun out there. The tyres are taking a pounding, so we have a bit of work to do to get on top of that. The race is going to be difficult yet exciting, as nobody knows how it will pan out. We have a good idea of how we need to get the car set up, so we shall see.
George will continue his practice preparations on Saturday morning before contesting qualifying in the afternoon – the session that will define the grid for Sunday’s race and the ninth round of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship.