{"id":91965,"date":"2021-06-28T03:49:26","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T03:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=91965"},"modified":"2021-06-28T05:59:24","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T05:59:24","slug":"brutal-heartbreak-for-formula-one-battlers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=91965","title":{"rendered":"'Brutal' heartbreak for Formula One battlers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Williams driver George Russell<\/a> says he's "gutted" after a car problem cost him a likely top-10 finish in the Styrian Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Russell's Williams team were on track for their best result since 2017, with the 23-year-old running eighth in the early stages of the race<\/a>, immediately ahead of Daniel Ricciardo's McLaren.<\/p>\n

That was on the back of an impressive 11th place in qualifying,<\/a> highlighting the progress the team has made after a barren period in recent years.<\/p>\n

Williams has scored just a single world championship point in the last three seasons, courtesy of Robert Kubica's 10th place finish at Germany in 2019.<\/p>\n

A radio message to Russell in the opening stages of the race<\/a> was an indicator that trouble was ahead, with the team advising the Brit they'd need to switch to "Plan B" for "reliability" reasons.<\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

A lengthy pitstop ensued, with the mechanics working on the right side of the car. That failed to fix the problem, and Russell retired shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

"I'm just gutted for the team to be honest," said Russell.<\/p>\n

"You know, they've worked so hard to be in this position over the past three years, chasing these points. We never really knew when they would come and we knew we'd have to have a perfect weekend and, you know, we were in such a great position \u2013 P8, on the medium tyre \u2013 we would have been able to pounce at the end.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/GeorgeRussell63\/status\/1409156742936764418?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"And I think P7 was probably possible, ahead of (Fernando) Alonso and there's four or six points, is massive. It's the difference probably between P8 and P10 in the championship."<\/p>\n

Russell, who has been strongly linked to a move to Mercedes next season to replace Valtteri Bottas, has impressed in his three seasons with Williams.<\/p>\n

Incredibly, in 45 races for the team, Russell has never been outqualified by his teammate.<\/p>\n

A one-off drive in place of Lewis Hamilton<\/a> at last year's Sakhir Grand Prix nearly resulted in a fairytale victory, before a pitstop error by Mercedes ruined his race.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Williams<\/p>\n

"I wasn't surprised to be honest because I know we've done some really great work recently to improve the car and I knew the pace on Friday was strong," he said.<\/p>\n

"I was obviously on the mediums [tyres] compared to the guys ahead on the softs, so I was driving my heart out, driving as fast as I could to keep behind the Ferrari and AlphaTauri and McLaren, you know?<\/p>\n

"We're not normally in this position so we should be proud of the job we did. Racing is just brutal."<\/p>\n

Russell does have some cause for optimism, with the cars back at the Red Bull Ring again next weekend for the Austrian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Williams driver George Russell says he's "gutted" after a car problem cost him a likely top-10 finish in the Styrian Grand Prix. Russell's Williams team […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91965"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91967,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91965\/revisions\/91967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}