‘Strong’ race for George in Sochi
George secures another point-scoring finish as he ends Formula One’s Russian Grand Prix in P10.
With the race being declared dry, George began the race on the Medium compound Pirelli tyres, lining up in P3 as he eagerly awaited lights out at the Sochi Autodrom.
As the lights went out, George made a stellar getaway to maintain his P3 place and try to put some distance between himself and the rest of the field.
The Brit was able to maintain his P3 position until lap 14 of the 53-lap race when he pitted, swapping his Medium tyres for a set of Hard tyres to re-join the race in P15 behind the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.
As the first flurry of pitstops began, George was able to improve and, by lap 27, the Brit had moved up into P11 before being caught by Max Verstappen on lap 28, moving him into P12.
As the remainder of the field opted to take their pitstop, George moved into P9 by P36, but he was unable to maintain the position and was caught by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc on lap 42.
As the field entered the final five laps, the race took a dramatic turn as the rain began to fall and George opted to pit for Intermediate tyres and re-joining the track In P14.
In the tricky conditions, George made progress as he gradually made his way towards the points and, by the final lap, the Brit clinched the final point-scoring position to end the race in P10.
George Russell – Williams Racing Driver
I thought we had a really strong race today. We held our own and made no silly mistakes and that was our Grand Prix throughout. We held third for the first 12 laps and it was quite fun fighting for this position, trying to keep cars like the McLaren, the Mercedes’, and the Aston Martin behind and we have to be proud of this. I struggled at the end on the Intermediate tyre as I was on a used set having gone through all of our sets in qualifying yesterday.
In the end, it is another point on the board so we will take it. It wasn’t the dream result but before the weekend if we’d have been offered 10th and another point, we would have taken it. Overall, I think it was a good race.
F1 will return for the Turkish Grand Prix on Friday October 8 at 9:30am BST for FP1.