George Russell finished in 18th place at the end of a challenging Hungarian Grand Prix which saw Williams Racing struggle for long-run pace in mixed weather conditions.

For the third round of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship, the Briton equalled his personal best qualifying performance in motorsport’s top tier, securing 12th on the grid for Sunday’s race.

With a bout of rain in the run-up to the 70-lap event, George started the Hungarian Grand Prix on Intermediate tyres and like the rest of the field on the inside line, struggled to find traction when the race commenced. 

This lack of grip saw George lose four positions on the opening tour which dropped him to 16th, but as drivers ahead began to pit for slick tyres, the Briton was quickly elevated to sixth. 

On lap 4, George opted to make this change and boxed for the dry compound tyres, fitting a set of the faster yet less durable Softs with the threat of further rainfall still present.

When this chance of further unpredictability fell south of the circuit, George again boxed on lap 19, this time for a set of Medium tyres to rejoin the race in 18th in the center of a battle with Antonio Giovinazzi and Esteban Ocon.

After ascending to 16th on the road, George completed his final pit stop of the race on lap 50, fitting a used set of Softs to navigate the final 20 tours, ultimately finishing in 18th.

George Russell – Williams Racing Driver

“Firstly, we made a bad start in the wet and it was very tricky. I think everyone on the inside struggled for whatever reason. From then on in, our race pace was really poor, we just need to understand what is going on. Last year it was the opposite, our race pace was better than the qualifying pace. Now we are pretty fast on the Saturday and struggle a lot on the Sunday. However, if we look at everything and see the steps we have made, especially on the Saturdays, we have got to be relatively pleased. There are plenty of positives, we just need to rectify the negatives and make our pace of the car a bit better across the ball.”

Following three consecutive weekends of racing, Formula 1 heads to the UK for the first of two races at the Silverstone International Circuit from July 31 - August 2.