George Russell celebrated the French Grand Prix as his “best ever race” in Formula 1 with Williams after finishing 12th.
In a race without failures, Russell made late overtaking maneuvers against Esteban Ocon in the Alpine and Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri to give Williams the best result of the season.
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The result was Russell’s best finish for Williams since the Bahrain GP last season, while also ensuring that the team is again ninth ahead of Haas in the constructors’ championship.
Despite difficult driving conditions with tire wear as the key to the strategy, Russell was able to excel at the Paul Ricard Circuit.
“It was really, really difficult inside,” Russell told Sky Sports F1. “It was a really great race from the inside.
“I managed to do some really nice overtaking maneuvers, one with Tsunoda at the end that ended for us in front of these cars, the Alfa [Romeo], Ocon, Tsunoda in the end, for us is massive.
“With 12th place I would even say that it was our best race together ever.
“It’s a shame that nothing happened at the front because, as I said, 12th place is usually a pretty good result, but still very happy with it and a good start into the three weeks.”
Russell wants to improve the race starts
Russell has enjoyed success in the junior category throughout his career, but since joining the Williams team on the start line, the British driver has struggled to perfect his first lap performance.
It was a similar story at Paul Ricard, where Russell stated, “I didn’t do enough work to get the tires in the window on the warm-up lap and I just had a lot of wheels off the line and it’s just a ‘knocking effect .
“I got stuck on turn one, had a car on the outside, a car on the inside and I had nowhere to go.
“It’s something I’ve really struggled with since I’ve been in Formula One, to be honest. Since I’m in the back of the grid, I really have to work on it.
“We keep trying, but in the end we managed to get it going, pitting early and taking this exertion very far.”
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