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Russell was 10th at the start of Sunday’s race at the Red Bull Ring, putting him close to scoring Williams’ first points since the 2019 German GP and his first score with the team.
But the British rider had to deal with a late attack from Alonso, who recovered from 14th place on the grid to enter the fight for 10th place with less than 10 laps to go.
Russell managed to keep Alonso behind on several occasions at Turn 4, as well as defending the Alpine rider when they went side-to-side at Turn 6, only to be passed with five laps remaining.
Russell said after the race that he was happy to have stood up to Alonso, but felt powerless to prevent the two-time F1 world champion from passing due to the difference in pace between the Williams and the Alpine.
Alonso has previously praised Russell, calling him a future world champion, and smiled when asked about the post-race bout by Autosport.
“It was very intense, unfortunately for just one point, but it felt like it was the last round of the championship for us,” said Alonso.
“At one point it was gold for him and for ourselves after we started 14th. It was nice.
“In a way, when I saw that it was George, I felt a little sad that the battle had to be with him.
George Russell, Williams FW43B, Fernando Alonso, Alpine A521
Photo By: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“I think he will have the opportunity to get on the podium and fight for race victories, I guess in the future, if he goes to Mercedes.
“I enjoyed today. A starting point 14th was not expected, because our simulations this morning, they were a little more pessimistic than P10. I’ll take the point.
Alonso’s return to 10th place marked his fourth consecutive scoring, and came after a frustrating qualifying session which saw the Spaniard lose his last effort in Q2 after hitting traffic in the last sector.
“The pace was very good today in the race,” said Alonso.
“It wasn’t just yesterday that the car was running well. I think it was also today, so this weekend, for different reasons, we seem more competitive.
“If you start from your real position in qualifying I think P5 or P6 was possible. And today, from 14th place, if you’re 11th in the first round or 12th, you can still finish 8th or 7th, so it was good to see that.
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