Williams Racing‘s struggles continued in Austin as George Russell could only manage eighteenth on the grid whilst Robert Kubica was nineteenth after gaining a place from Sergio Perez who will start in the pitlane after missing the FIA weighbridge in practice.
Russell out-qualified his teammate for the nineteenth time this season as he managed eighteenth and over a second slower then follow rookie Antonio Giovinazzi.
The Brit has enjoyed his first visit to Austin as he desperately searches for his first Formula 1 point.
“I’m really enjoying driving the circuit and the conditions are warmer than yesterday,” said Russell. “As the team predicted, we are further away than normal, and this track doesn’t suit our car at the moment. There was slightly more time on the table and getting the tyres in the optimum window on an evolving circuit is challenging, nevertheless it was a good lap. I’ll go out there tomorrow, have fun and gather more information for next year.“
As for Kubica who had to give up his FW42 during the first practice session for test driver Nicholas Latifi, the Pole struggled to close the gap to Russell.
Kubica enjoyed his first weekend at the Circuit Of The Americas, where he hopes that tweaks to the car will help with the race pace and a hopefull charge through the order.
“The track is really nice to drive and probably the best of the modern circuits. FP3 and my last quali run were good for me, but the gap to George is big. We made a few changes ahead of qualifying to help our race pace, so hopefully that will pay off tomorrow. Overall, it has been ok.”
