Williams Racing’s George Russell had another mega day in qualifying at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Russell was dubbed ‘Mr. Saturday’ during the 2020 season for his stellar performances, overdriving the Williams to get it into Q2.
And Saturday was no exception. Williams had been on the back foot all weekend and it was going to take something great to get at least one of their cars through to Q2. The man to do that was Russell and he will be starting Sunday’s race in fifteenth.
Russell said: That performance was the absolute maximum today and I am really happy. Even though we have made a step closer to the front of the field, the Alfa has made an even greater step, so I wasn’t expecting to get into Q2 today.
“I am really pleased we managed to put a clean lap together, get the most out of it and sneak into Q2. It’s going to be a tough, long race but we need to capitalise where we can and not make any mistakes.
Latifi: “It was tough today and I am not completely satisfied”
Nicholas Latifi still hasn’t out-qualified George Russell. Latifi is starting Sunday’s race in seventeenth and still has only one Q2 appearance to his name during his F1 career so far.
The weekend hasn’t been the greatest for him so far and the Canadian is less than impressed with the performance in Bahrain.
“It was tough today and I am not completely satisfied. We have been struggling all weekend to find the right balance of the car, as well as get some consistency and driveability. However, the qualifying session for me was the best the car has felt so far this weekend,” stated Latifi.
“The wind switched around 180 degrees and the car handled completely differently, but I still struggled out there. It will be a long and exciting race tomorrow though and we will see what we can do.“
