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Qualifying for the 2020
Hungarian Grand Prix would see Williams Racing driver George Russell
complete the session with the 12th-fastest time. But even though the session
would see George move into the second period for the second consecutive race
such were the expectations amongst the Williams team that they came away
with a feeling of disappointment that they could have performed better.
Such was the pace showed by George that he was the smallest of margins
behind tenth placed Gasly with the pair separated by just 0.190s. But the
team felt that if things had been managed slightly differently they could
have moved into that final place in the final period of qualifying.
Senior Race Engineer Dave Robson
spoke to the Race.com and he admitted that the team could have achieved
more. Robson said: “We probably did leave a little bit on the table in the
way we chose to run Q2,"
“It was one of the most stressful fully dry quali sessions I’ve been
involved with for a long time with that constant threat of rain.
“Once we got into Q2, we knew we had that one set of new tyres and there was
the threat of rain so we elected to go early on the new set and hope that we
can set a time and it then start raining.
“The way everyone else then peeled out of the pitlane following us was
perhaps a bit of a surprise and I suspect not fully what they had planned,
so he [Russell] did pick up a little bit of traffic though, to be fair, all
these cars he picked up were extremely reasonable and generous, so I don’t
think that compromised his lap too much.”
Robson spoke of how the team
could have taken a different approach to things like engine modes taht could
have helped George into Q3.
Robson added: “Part of his frustration was that his lap at the end of Q1 I
think was genuinely stellar, I think he did an exceptionally good job.”
Also another person to come away
with a little feeling of disappointment was George.
George commented by saying: “I’m
a little bit disappointed we couldn’t do a bit more in Q2 because I had a
bit of traffic on my fastest lap and we were considering backing off,
boxing, refuelling and going again.”
“So I was on the radio during my Q2 lap, speaking to the team and, because
we didn’t know what the weather was going to do, we stayed out there and we
just missed Q3.
“I think it was possible today. The car felt great, I was in a good groove,
but nevertheless, P12 is good.”
“With hindsight, we might have done things in Q2 a little bit differently.
We probably probably burned up a little bit too much of the engine modes
with hindsight in Q1 as well.
“I think there was the pace definitely to get one place further up. And much
like last week, Q3 was tantalisingly close, and had everything been
absolutely perfect we might have might have just got there.
“So there’s a little bit of frustration in there but to be honest, I’m happy
that we were able to fight. It’s positive that the pace probably was there
today, we just didn’t quite get it all.”
Team-mate Nicholas Latifi also
produced a good qualifying result for a F1 rookie. He was also able to get
into the second period of qualifying but unfortunately was not able to
improve in the second period. But been in 15th still keeps him an
opportunity to perform well in Sundays race. |
