British Grand Prix 2021 – Sprint Qualifying

Qualifying Notes

– George Russell finished 9^th on track and Nicholas Latifi 17^th in today’s Sprint Qualifying, which sets the grid for the British Grand Prix
– Unfortunately, George picked up a three-place grid penalty post-race for an incident with Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and will now start 12^th on the grid
– George ran a good race, starting 8^th on the grid on the medium Pirelli tyre. He lost a couple of positions at the start, but made up one when Perez left the track
– Nicholas started 18^th also on the medium compound, he ran as high as P16, making up a couple of places in the opening stages

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: We’ve had a solid day and remain in a good position to start the race tomorrow. It was a shame to lose a few places with George, but nonetheless he will start the Grand Prix in a relatively strong position. Nicholas has improved his starting position too and both cars are in good condition.

Tomorrow will be hot, and this will influence the strategies that people will employ in the race. We have some work to do tonight to work out what is the best option for us, but we are confident that we can do that and consequently put ourselves into a position to deliver a good performance tomorrow.

George Russell: Overall, it was an interesting race, trickier than I anticipated out there keeping the tyres alive for 17 laps. It was very difficult keeping Esteban (Ocon) behind. The Alpine was very fast even on the soft tyre, but we finished ninth on track and my first time in the top-10 with Williams.

However, it is very unfortunate to get a penalty and I feel that it was a harsh decision. We are still going to be starting in a great position to fight for points tomorrow. We had a really strong race today; it is going to be long race and tyre management will be key, which will be the overriding factor into the result. So, let’s wait and see!

Nicholas Latifi: It was quite uneventful for me but definitely more intense than a normal Grand Prix. There isn’t a lot of tyre management given the distance, so you just try and go as flat out as possible. In the end, we were just compromised by our starting position as we were unable to attack any of the other cars, and just hanging on to that position. I am still frustrated from yesterday as we shouldn’t be starting where we are right now, I think it will be tricky to move forwards tomorrow and we will have to rely on a few opportunities to present themselves. It will be a long race, but anything can happen so we shall see.