George Russell says a better understanding of Pirelli’s tyres was behind his and Williams’ strongest showing of 2019 at Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Williams has spent much of the year mired at the back of the grid, sometimes a second off the pace of the midfield drivers, and picked up a point – which remains provisional – at the crazy German Grand Prix.
Williams introduced a raft of updates at Hockenheim that had little tangible gains but at the Hungaroring Russell displayed eye-catching pace throughout practice.
Russell qualified 16th, within a tenth of a second of making Q2, marking the first time in 2019 that a Williams driver managed to beat a rival on pure pace.
Russell managed to beat both Lance Stroll and Antonio Giovinazzi, as well as Williams team-mate Robert Kubica, in race trim as he claimed 16th position.
“Definitely the best weekend of the year,” Russell said.
“Qualifying exceeded all expectations and exceeded the reality. We absolutely maximised our single lap whereas the other teams made some errors.
“I think [the race] was more of the reality. We made a step but we’re still quite far from the rest.
“But if we continue at this rate, and we should be able to continue at this rate, we should be in the mix more often.”
Russell added: “Last weekend [at Hockenheim] was an absolute disaster, this weekend was very positive. We need to see if this weekend was a one-off or not.
When pushed on why he was much more competitive in Hungary, Russell replied: “Tyres. All tyres. They’re a nightmare.”
