George Russell impressed in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, delivering Williams Racing with a second consecutive Q2 appearance by taking 12th.

A disrupted rain-soaked Friday preceded George’s qualifying charge and after turning 23 laps in FP3, the Briton entered the classification session with only 54 laps of experience around Hungaroring behind the wheel of the FW43.

This didn’t phase the 22-year-old, however, and with a pacy 1:15.585s run at the end of Q1, George again escaped elimination for the second race weekend in a row, ending the first third in P9 overall after improving by 0.933s.

With rain waiting in the wings, George and his Williams Racing team gambled at the start of Q2 by using their final set of fresh tyres early on – a decision which ultimately proved to be costly.

A quick tour from the outset saw George post a 1:15.698s lap and with track evolution minimal at the close of Q2, this delivered the Briton with 12th, only 0.190s shy of a place inside the top 10 shootout.

George Russell – Williams Racing Driver

“The car came alive in qualifying in these cooler conditions and I had a lot of fun out there. Again, I did not expect to be this fast, the car was feeling great and I had a good rhythm. It was a shame about the Q2 lap, we had some traffic and I think Q3 was possible today, which would have been amazing. But P12, considering where we were last year, was incredible. I love driving this track flat out, it was great fun and I’m proud of the boys and girls to get that result again. Fingers crossed we get a bit of rain tomorrow; we could do with that and we could be on for a good result. I am ready to fight, and hopefully we have a successful race.”

After equalling his best Formula 1 qualifying performance, George will start the third race of the 2020 World Championship from the sixth row of the grid.