George Russell was denied a strong finish at the Austrian Grand Prix as reliability woes forced the Briton to retire from the opening race of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship.

From 17th on the grid, George demonstrated encouraging signs for his Williams Racing team despite failing to see the chequered flag, making solid progress around the Red Bull Ring until reliability interfered.

The Briton’s starting spot became 19th after the opening tour as Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen overtook but soon, George began to make progress, regaining 17th when Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo ran into problems.

An overtake on Romain Grosjean allowed George to inherit 16th although this swiftly became 14th as Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen also encountered issues.

With Magnussen’s retirement came the deployment of the safety car and by pitting in this period on lap 25, George became a key benefactor on the grid as he advanced to 13th with the strategy call.

Now running on the Hard-compound tyre after starting on the Mediums, George briefly moved into 12th before slowing after encountering a loss of fuel pressure – a terminal problem that caused the Briton’s retirement on lap 49.

George Russell – Williams Racing Driver

“We didn’t have as much pace as we were hoping for today, and I struggled a lot out there. I was trying my hardest to hang on with the Haas and the Alfa Romeo, but they were too fast. I had a fuel pressure loss, but I don’t know all the details, I just had to turn the car off. It’s a shame as there were a lot of mistakes made out there today and many cars stopped. It is just one of those things. We still need to make some improvements, and we have the opportunity next week to do that.”

George will again race at the Red Bull Ring next weekend as Formula 1’s 2020 season continues with the Styrian Grand Prix.