George Russell was left disappointed with his qualifying performance at the Nürburgring. The British driver, who has been dubbed ‘Mr Saturday’ for consistently getting a underachieving Williams Racing car into Q2, missed out on the second part of qualifying but felt like he should have been there after a strong practice.
Although he didn’t get through to Q2, he still out-qualified his team-mate and is now on a tally of thirty one to nothing.
Russell said: “I am a little bit disappointed; I think Q2 was possible if we had put everything together. It was tough in these cold conditions; the tyres are really difficult to get working. In FP3 they were working well, and the car was feeling great, but I couldn’t get the same feeling in qualifying.
“That was a shame as we were so close to Q2 and I think we had the potential today. In ordinary circumstances we know exactly where we are so I am really excited for what the weather may bring tomorrow, hopefully it will be mixed and create a bit of chaos. It will be an interesting race and I am ready to fight tomorrow.“
Nicholas Latifi also feel’s like he had it in him to get the car into Q2. The Canadian driver wasn’t too happy with his laps, describing them as ‘messy’.
The forecast for the race is unpredictable after the contrast of conditions on Friday and Saturday so Latifi believes that’s will play a part in the race.
“I think Q2 was achievable today. I wasn’t completely happy with my laps on my second and third sets of tyres. They were a bit messy with some snaps here and there that hurt the laptime, so I am a bit disappointed on that front,” said Latifi.
“We made some sizable changes from FP3 to qualifying to get the balance more in the window, which I feel we did. I think tomorrow will be interesting regardless, it could be mixed conditions, so I am very much looking forward to it.“
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance, was left frustrated after the cancellation of session on Friday but thinks the team got a good enough practice Saturday morning to get them ready for the race.
Robson said: “After a frustrating day on Friday, it was good to get out of the garage today. The track was busy throughout FP3 as everyone condensed their usual programmes into 60mins of running. We had a productive session and believe that we have got the car into a good window for the race tomorrow.
“Qualifying was a little disappointing as the car had the pace to qualify for Q2, but we couldn’t quite put the lap together, missing the cut-off by around half a tenth. We are now in a battle to get ahead of the Haas cars early in the race and hope that something in front of us unfolds to allow us to make some extra places. The cold and possibly damp conditions tomorrow should help produce an interesting race and there is still a lot to play for this weekend.“
