George Russell vows to ‘go for it’ in F1 Sprint after ‘incredible’ home crowd pushed him to 8th in qualifying

He became known as “Mr. Saturday” for his exploits in qualifying, but George Russell proved he could do it on a Friday too, having overcome a lackluster pace in practice to grab eighth place. on the grid for Saturday’s first Sprint F1 at Silverstone – much to the delight of UK fans.

The Williams driver was audible on the track to tens of thousands of fans as he completed his final lap in Q3 – his second consecutive appearance in the top 10 for penalties. And he didn’t disappoint his home crowd, tying his best grid position for Williams, just around a tenth of a second behind fellow Briton Lando Norris’ McLaren in sixth.

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Russell subsequently paid tribute to those who had encouraged him. Referring to a recent conversation with 1994 Silverstone winner Damon Hill on our F1 Nation podcast, he said: “Damon Hill told me the crowd was worth a second [a lap of performance] – I thought he was lying, but maybe he was right!

“Incredible support and incredible feelings. You know, this is my second Q3 with Williams on the rebound and we’re just on that momentum at the moment. Being here and seeing everyone together is just great. I had a bit of a lousy FP1 so I knew we had to step it up in qualifying and we did.

Indeed, Russell was dead last in the only practice session before Friday’s first qualifying session of the new Sprint weekend format. When asked what made the difference between FP1 and qualifying, he replied, “I don’t know to be honest. The track was a little green and we were a bit lost in the settings so we just said “let’s get back to basics, don’t think too much about it and let the track come to us”.

“I did the first lap in Q1 and I knew we were in a good position. I’m buzzing to be honest. My family is here too – they haven’t competed in a race since Abu Dhabi 2019 so it’s good for me too and it’s so nice to do it in front of them.

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Russell was adamant ahead of the weekend that he would go into the Sprint, and wouldn’t take it with caution as some predict the drivers will come close. And it looks like he’s not changing his mind now, despite the elusive Williams first point he dreams of, only being open to the top three drivers in the 17-lap sprint.

“I think a lot of guys will play a bit easy because they want to get a good starting position for Sunday,” he explained. “But we’re going. It’s another race for me and I want to move forward, I want to fight with these guys around me and get the best possible starting position for Sunday. I treat it like any normal race and just go for it.