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George Russell set the 12th-fastest time in qualifying to put Williams in Q2 for the second consecutive race, but his pace in Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying might have been even better.
Team-mate Nicholas Latifi also made Q2 for the first time in his Formula 1 career, giving Williams two cars in the second stage of qualifying for the first time since the 2018 Italian Grand Prix almost two years ago.
The Hungaroring was always expected to be a strong circuit for Williams, which has a car with reasonable downforce levels but that is limited by a relatively high drag level.
That pace showed in qualifying, with Russell lapping just 0.190s off AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly, who took the final Q3 place – pace that might have been achievable with a different approach to qualifying.
“We probably did leave a little bit on the table in the way we chose to run Q2,” said Robson when asked by The Race about the performance.
“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.”
While delighted with the performance overall, Russell was a little disappointed with the performance in Q2.
He visibly had a high level of confidence in the car on turn in and celebrated his Q1 lap over the radio to the team as he completed it, such was the quality.
“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,” said Russell.
“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.”
Russell’s Q2 time was actually 0.104s slower than his time in the first part of qualifying, a lap he described over the radio at the end of his crucial first run on fresh softs as “messy”.
Robson admitted that a different approach to the engine modes and runplan might also have helped the team make Q3.
“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,” said Robson.
“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.”
Latifi, who was running the older-specification Williams that does not feature the new front suspension – the two drivers have alternated in the newer spec car but will both have the upgrade for the next race at Silverstone – also failed to improve in Q2.
He made some set-up changes as an aggressive approach to chasing an improved position, but ended up four-tenths slower than his best from Q1.
Deputy team principal Claire Williams described Williams’s Styrian Grand Prix performance as “vindication” for the work done to turn around the team, but pointed to making Q2 in a straightforward qualifying session as proof it doesn’t need luck or unusual circumstances to perform well.
“We’ve demonstrated that we’ve clearly made progress, we demonstrated that in stable conditions as well, it wasn’t a fluke, we didn’t have a lot of incidents or dramas to deal with, no yellow flags, we didn’t benefit from others’ mistakes,” said Williams.
“That was the pure result of some really great teamwork behind the scenes, working hard in practice to set the car up, learn everything they needed to.”
The question now is whether Williams can show improved race pace having been comfortably the slowest car in race conditions at the Red Bull Ring last weekend and not had the speed to challenge the Haas and Alfa Romeo drivers on race day.
But the stronger performance of the FW43 at the Hungaroring combined with the difficulty of overtaking there means there are hopes that Russell and Latifi can hold position and therefore have a shot at the points.
“We were a bit disappointed and a little bit surprised by our race pace last weekend,” said Robson.
“From a few laps we did on high fuel that were representative and given what we think other people were doing in P1 it looked better.
“The most important thing is just to make the car nice and wide and hang on to the car in front and the race pace follows, possibly in somewhat of a procession.”
