05/07/2021
NEWS STORY
Yet again, Lady Luck looks the other way as far as George Russell is concerned, as the Briton suffers another tough Sunday afternoon.
His magnificent performance on Saturday, when he got his Williams into Q3 on medium tyres, lulled us all into a false sense of security, for just twenty-four hours later George Russell watched his hopes of his first point of the season disappear four laps from the flag.
Having survived a pre-race scare, when he felt there was "100% something wrong" with the rear of his car, the Briton lost a number of places on the opening lap when stuck behind a struggling Yuki Tsunoda, dropping the Williams driver to 13th in the process.
Gradually working his way back through the field, with just four laps remaining Russell looked certain to at least break his duck and score his first point of the season.
However, Fernando Alonso - a self-confessed fan of the youngster - passed the Williams to grab the final point.
"I did everything I could," said Russell, "but ultimately the speed Fernando had, he was always going to catch, he was absolutely flying.
"He was unfortunate yesterday," the Briton continued, "he probably should have qualified in the top five, and I guess P11 was the maximum today."
Refusing to be disheartened, Russell admitted that it was good to battle the two-time world champion.
"It sort of reminded me of my junior days when you were battling wheel-to-wheel week in, week out," he grinned. "I guess the biggest thing was just experience. And getting that feeling doing it in a Formula 1 car is very different with all the downforce and dirty air. So you're just gaining experience.
"It feels a bit strange, I've been here three years now and I haven't had that many battles," he admitted.
"I'm not that disheartened, to be honest," he insisted, "because ultimately you get what you deserve and those guys were faster than us.
"We did a great job yesterday over one lap but they were inherently that bit faster than us, and were always going to come through."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Spielberg, here.