George Russell is geared up and ready to return to the Black Sea resort of Sochi to contest the 10th round of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship – the Russian Grand Prix.

Following a competitive outing at Mugello – home of the Tuscan Grand Prix – George and his Williams Racing team head to Russia with momentum off the back of their strongest finish of the season.

At 5.848kms long, the Sochi Autodrom features 18 corners – the majority of which are low-speed, meaning that the circuit does not suit the team’s FW43 package.

Despite this, experience is on the side of both parties, with the Grove-based squad finishing on the podium in 2014 while George won at the circuit in his title-winning Formula 2 campaign in 2018.

In recent years, tyre warm-up has been a struggle for Williams at Sochi, given the track’s smooth surface, but with Pirelli bringing its softest compounds, this should not pose an issue.

George Russell – Williams Racing Driver

“It was disappointing missing out on those points at Mugello, points that I felt we thoroughly deserved. However, it has given me and the team greater motivation to go out there and extract even more performance from the car.

“Russia is a circuit that on paper won’t suit us as much as Mugello, but we have learnt some things with the set-up in the recent weeks that I hope will allow us to be more competitive with our nearest rivals. I think everybody will have enjoyed a well-deserved week off after an intense 11 weeks, and will be back ready and fighting in Russia.”

George will contest three hours of practice on Friday in preparation for qualifying on Saturday and Sunday’s 53-lap race.