George Russell experienced the frustrations of qualifying at Monza first hand as the Williams Racing driver secured 19th on the grid for the eighth race of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship.

After completing 90-minutes of practice on Friday, George took to the track on Saturday morning to continue his qualifying and race preparations, turning 16-laps of the 5.793km-long venue.

Following the trend of recent seasons, qualifying was a game of cat and mouse, with drivers searching for a slipstream in an attempt to increase end of straight speed and therefore improve lap time.

Having laid down a benchmark 1:21.587s lap, George embarked on his final tour with one-minute of Q1 remaining, however, was impeded by traffic at the end of his out lap and immediately at the start of his hot lap.

With an immediate time loss through Turns 1 and 2, the 22-year-old ultimately abandoned his final run, qualifying in 19th place, beating team-mate Nicholas Latifi by 0.130s.

George Russell – Williams Racing Driver

“It was a frustrating session for all of us, especially in the moment. Looking back there wasn’t a huge amount more the team could have done, if they sent me a bit earlier or a bit later. We would still be in the same boat. It is just one of those Monza things unfortunately. Nevertheless, we have our eyes focused on tomorrow.”

George will line up on the 10th row of the grid for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix in which the British driver will complete 53 laps of the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.