Russell ‘prepared to fight back’ from Imola spin

Mark Scott
George Russell, Williams

George Russell, Williams

George Russell is ready to move on from his costly mistake at Imola having had some time to process what went wrong on race day.

The Williams driver was on course for his first-ever World Championship points as he had his FW43 up inside the top 10 at Imola during the latter stages of a chaotic race.

But Russell would spin out and crash into the barriers during the Safety Car period to see his chance of points suddenly disappear into thin air.

With such a condensed 2020 schedule, it can be hard for drivers to find the time to take a step back and reflect but Russell has been able to do exactly that in the lead up to the Turkish Grand Prix.

“I am excited to get back racing in Turkey, and for the challenge of driving at a new circuit,” Russell said.

“It has been good to have a week off to reflect on what happened at Imola and learn from my mistake.

“The recent performance from the car has been really encouraging and I am looking forward to seeing what we can achieve.

“Overall, I am feeling stronger and prepared to fight back this weekend.”

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Dave Robson, head of vehicle performance at Williams, said although the team were frustrated to see the chance of points evaporate, they were still encouraged by the performance of both drivers.

“George and Nicholas both showed good pace during the race in Imola and but for a small error, we would’ve finished inside the top 10,” Robson remarked.

“Although frustrating to have missed out, we are pleased that we were able to get ourselves into that position, and we hope we can consolidate it here in Turkey.

“We return to the normal weekend format for this event, which will give us a chance to explore more setup options than we were able to do in Imola.

“Work will be centred around understanding the track surface and the tyre behaviour and this will enable us to pick a set-up that sensibly balances the qualifying and race requirements.

“Over recent weeks we have experimented with this trade and were able to make some good progress in both Portugal and Imola.”

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