Russell encouraged after racing midfielders in Hungary

Hungarian Grand Prix – George Russell said he could take “a lot of positives” from the Hungaroring after beating midfield rivals to 16th place.

Following his impressive qualifying effort – which almost resulted in a Q2 appearance for the Williams team – Russell raced admirably in amongst the regular midfield teams, beating Lance Stroll, Antonio Giovinazzi and team-mate Robert Kubica to 16th place.

After also racing the likes of Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat in the early exchanges of the race, Russell was buoyed by the team making “a good step forward”.

“Yesterday definitely exceeded expectations, so it was a little bit back to reality today,” said Russell.

“I had a good first lap and made up two positions on Magnussen and Kvyat at turn four and five, which was pretty fun. It was nice to be racing other drivers. We’ve still got work to do but there are a lot of positives to take from this weekend. We’ve made a good step forward.”

Conversely, Kubica endured a tough race, but paid tribute to the large number of fans that turned up to support him:

“The race was as expected. We had to manage the tyres to get to the end with a one-stop strategy. The feeling wasn’t great in the car, similar to yesterday. After the break we have completely different tracks, we will have to wait and see if we are able to close the gap, like George was able to do here.

“It is amazing to see how many people from Poland came here. I would like to thank them for the great atmosphere and hope that they go home with good memories, as I will do.”