‘Eyes forward’ after Williams’ best grid spot for three years

George Russell says it will be “eyes forward and maximum attack” after taking Williams’ best qualifying result since 2018.

Russell provided a demonstration of Williams’ progress at the last round at Imola as he qualified 12th and crashed out while battling Valtteri Bottas for ninth spot.

Russell finished first practice at Portimao in seventh spot but slipped down the order in the subsequent two sessions and feared an early exit.

But the Briton navigated his way to Q2 and only missed out on a top 10 spot by 0.057s.

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It marked Williams’ best qualifying result since Lance Stroll made Q3 at the 2018 Italian Grand Prix.

“We were very fast in practice one and just been struggling ever since,” said Russell.

“In qualifying, everything came alive again. Lots of confidence and we did a fantastic job to qualify 11th – It’s our best result ever in the past three years on a Saturday – so really happy.

“Ultimately we start P11, we’re on the Medium tyre for the start tomorrow. The rivals around us will be on the Softs, who are ahead, which is not a great race tyre. So we’re in a great position.”

Williams has not scored a point since the 2019 German Grand Prix while Russell has never finished inside the top 10 during his 39 starts for the team.

“[We need] a good start, a good first lap,” he said. “We have the straight-line speed. I think the guys behind us will really struggle to overtake us, so eyes forward and maximum attack.”