George Russell completed an extensive running programme on Friday at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza where the Williams Racing driver participated in practice for the Italian Grand Prix.

With Roy Nissany returning to the cockpit of the FW43, George missed the opening session of the weekend on Friday morning, however, returned in FP2 for one single 90-minute practice window.

Over the session, the 22-year-old British driver completed 34 laps – 196.962kms of running – producing a best lap of a 1:22.927 to classify 20th overall, 0.102s shy of team-mate Nicholas Latifi.

This time was spent pushing the low-drag set-up of the FW43 which successfully exposed the limitations of Williams Racing’s 2020 package, presenting potential areas of improvement for Saturday.

George Russell – Williams Racing Driver

“It was tricky out there. We went quite extreme with the set-up for my second low fuel run and it was too far, which is why I only improved one tenth from my first run to the second. Our pace is definitely much better than we showed on paper today but I don’t think we are necessarily in the fight with Alfa and Haas this weekend. The characteristics of this circuit do go against us. We will be there in the race though and see what we can do.”

George will participate in one final practice session on Saturday morning before contesting qualifying for the eighth round of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship.