Russell: Run of F1 points finishes “fills me with a lot of pride”

Benefitting from a timely Safety Car, Russell managed to jump teammate Nicholas Latifi and Esteban Ocon when he made his one and only stop of the afternoon.

Russell maintained ninth behind Fernando Alonso to score points for the third time in four races, allowing Williams to move further clear of Alfa Romeo in the constructors’ championship.

“Points again! Yeah three in the last four races, pretty crazy,” Russell said. “I think what the team do incredibly well is making the most of other people’s mishaps, let’s say, strategically and capitalising from it. Because we know where the pace of the car is but we’ve now found ourselves three of the last four races in the points, probably without the pace to do so. 

“So, as a team we’ve definitely done something right and it fills me with a lot of pride to be able to be able to keep on bringing these results home.”

Russell admits Williams ending its points drought at the Hungaroring lifted the pressure off the team.

“Definitely having scored those first points in Budapest there’s almost a relief off everybody’s shoulders and we can just go out week-in, week-out and just try and maximise the package, maybe roll the dice slightly and try a few new things just to try and find more performance and get a better result,” he added.

“They just keep on coming, and we’re just doing things right now. Everybody’s got confidence, week-after-week we’ve just got this momentum. So really pleased we’re on this journey at the moment.”