Although he only completed 36 of the 71 laps at the Styrian Grand Prix, George Russell's efforts in Austria caught the eye of everyone watching. The British driver kickstarted his impressive showing on Saturday, missing out on Q3 by just 0.08s. In the end Russell did start inside the top 10 as Yuki Tsunoda's grid penalty bumped the Williams driver up one spot. It got better on Sunday as a strong start and good pace saw Russell run in eighth place, putting him on course to give Williams their first points scoring finish since the 2019 German Grand Prix. Instead a power unit issue dashed those hopes. Although Williams did what they could to keep the British driver on track, it wasn't enough as Russell was eventually forced to retire. “I’m just gutted for the team to be honest,” Russell told Formula1.com after the race. “You know, they’ve worked so hard to be in this position over the past three years, chasing these points. We never really knew when they would come and we knew we’d have to have a perfect weekend and, you know, we were in such a great position – eight, on the medium tyre – we would have been able to pounce at the end. “And I think seventh was probably possible, ahead of Alonso and there’s four or six points, is massive. It’s the difference probably between eighth and 10th in the championship.” One positive for Russell and Williams is that their strong pace should come in handy next weekend, as F1 will complete the second of back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring with the running of the Austrian Grand Prix.
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