George Russell’s Spanish Grand Prix woes continued into qualifying for the sixth round of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship as Williams Racing’s FW43 package struggled for speed.

Following a difficult Friday of running in which the car failed to showcase basic pace over qualifying and race simulations, the Grove-based team made slight improvements overnight, however, still struggled.

Prior to qualifying, George completed 16 laps in FP3 to place 19th but when the classification window commenced, the British driver’s recent streak of four consecutive Q2 appearances came to a close.

In his second run of Q1, George produced a 1:18.099s lap to land a place inside the top 15, however, when track conditions evolved and therefore, improved, the 22-year-old was at risk of being eliminated.

Sitting on the bubble, George was demoted to 16th by Kimi Raikkonen as the chequered flag waved, ultimately failing to improve upon his previous personal best to take 18th overall, 0.433s ahead of team-mate Nicholas Latifi who was 19th.

George Russell – Williams Racing Driver

“I was pretty pleased with the qualifying session, as we were a long way off our competitors in Free Practice. I was happy with our performance step but nevertheless, we need to understand where our Saturday pace has gone. With these hot track conditions we are struggling to get the tyres in the right window. It’s a bit strange as on paper, this circuit should suit us better than the last two weekends at Silverstone. We need to look deep into it, understand where our good pace has gone, and rectify it.”

George will start the Spanish Grand Prix from the ninth row of the grid alongside Haas F1’s Romain Grosjean.