George Russell is hoping that he’ll be able to find a way of repeating his early ambush of the race leaders last weekend when the lights go out at the start of the Austrian GP.
Russell took advantage of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris battling each other into the first corner in Spain to take the lead of the race, although he wasn’t able to hold it for very long.
There was similar early drama in today’s Sprint race when Norris was able to pass Verstappen on lap 5 only for the Red Bull to immediately strike back, causing Norris to drop to third behind his McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri.
With Verstappen and Norris once again lining up on the front row tomorrow at the Red Bull Ring, but Piastri out of the picture in P7, Russell sees a chance of history repeating itself tomorrow as he once again starts from the second row.
“These two were pretty dicey in the sprint race,” Russell told the media in parc ferme after the end of qualifying. “I think I’ll sit back and watch them do their thing, and hopefully just sneak through on the inside.
“Realistically they’ve got the pace on us,” he admitted. “Our race is probably going to be behind us, unfortunately. It’s important we don’t compromise our race too much battling with these guys, so let’s see.
“I’m happy to be in P3 because we compromised qualifying a little bit to help for the race tomorrow,” he said. “We changed a few things. We changed the wing level which helped a little bit. I think that will help the tyre deg.”
Russell ended up just 0.011s ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who will be starting alongside him on Sunday, and staying ahead and maintaining position will be the main focus for the team in the race.
“It feels as though we’ve got a real fight on our hands, especially with Ferrari,” Russell acknowledged. “I think we’re still a little bit behind McLaren, and Max and Red Bull were flying.
“It’s definitely going in the right direction for us,” he insisted. “The car is feeling really great. The team have worked so hard bringing these upgrades.”
“But the fact is, McLaren still has that edge on us,” he confirmed. “However [this is] three races in a row for us that we’ve [qualified] in the top three with Lewis and I, and that feels really great.”
Russell’s team mate Lewis Hamilton will line-up in fifth place tomorrow, having been frustrated to finish the earlier Sprint race in sixth.
“I was able to get close to Sainz [in the Sprint] but wasn’t quite able to challenge him,” he said. “We therefore made some changes to the car after the Sprint, and that helped.
“We were able to improve its overall balance and that enabled us to make a step forward. My final lap in Q3 was decent although my middle sector was a little bit down. But P5 was better than we managed in Sprint Qualifying.
“The adjustments we made to the car should help us in tomorrow’s race. I am therefore hopeful that we will have better race pace than we showed in today’s Sprint.
“It will be important to get past Sainz if we are to be in the fight for the podium. Let’s see what we can do.”
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Russell hoping to ‘sneak through on the inside’ again F1i.com.
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