F1 | Williams, Russell: “Car closer to my needs”

For Williams it will be an uphill race at COTA. Latifi qualified in seventeenth position, but gains three places due to various penalties from others and will start from fourteenth, on the seventh row. The opposite goes for Russell, one of those who replaced the power unit, and tomorrow he will be last despite entering Q2. However, the car performed positively compared to the difficulties that emerged in the first two free practice sessions.

“It was a better day than Friday – Russell admitted. Yesterday we struggled in the low speed corners, but today the wind direction changed and brought the car closer to my needs. Going through Q2 I had to fight with Alonso and Vettel to see who would start further ahead tomorrow despite the penalties. On my last lap I had a nice first sector, but I lost time in turns eight and nine. For the first time I violated the track limits this weekend, so it's a shame that it happened right in qualifying, but honestly it doesn't change much. Tomorrow will be a long race with many strategic solutions to evaluate."

“During my last fast lap I was surprised by some changes in balance in the high-speed corners – Latifi said. I pushed hard for the rest of the lap, but unfortunately I could no longer recover. It's frustrating because we could have reached Q2, but I didn't have a good lap. Compared to yesterday we improved in the flying lap, which is positive. I expect a difficult race with high temperatures and complicated tire management, but we will all be in the same situation."