Motorsport TechnologyThe Williams Racing Formula One team, partnered by Acronis, was left celebrating a long overdue double points haul as Nicholas Latifi finished 7th and George Russell 8th at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
It looked a forlorn hope at the outset with the drivers lining up 17th and 18th on the grid. But as carnage ensued at the front of the field, both drivers made brilliant starts, Nicholas making up 12 places to P6 and George up nine to P8.
A red flag period to remove Valtteri Bottas’ crashed Mercedes gave the field the opportunity to pit and change their intermediate tyres to medium slicks on a drying circuit and after a further stop for hard tyres to take them to the end, both drivers finished strongly to bag deserved points, upgraded further after Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification.
We dug in and we kept on fighting 💪
We'll keep building on this. See you after the break 💙 pic.twitter.com/eKAnlZqAdq
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) August 1, 2021
“I’m so happy for everyone and I’m a bit lost for words,” said an emotional Russell afterward. “It was an incredible race. My final stint was probably the best of my whole career as I was fighting like crazy, fending off Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
“I’m just so pleased for everyone because it’s been a big slog over the last two-and-a-half years for me, and three-and-a-half years for the team, so these points are really deserved. Really well done to Nicholas too, he made an amazing start and drove a really great race. Finishing eighth and ninth, we couldn’t really have done much more today.”
Teammate Latifi has largely been in Russell’s shadow during his second season with the team but he certainly proved his undoubted talent and justified the faith shown in him by leading the Englishman home.
“It is an amazing result for the team, and I am so happy for us,” said Latifi. “The team has been knocking on the door of points for a few races now, so to get both cars in the points and to move up to P8 in the championship is amazing.
“The race from my side was very tough to manage, obviously the start in the first corner was what sealed it for me. We struggled in qualifying yesterday, so to come away with a result like this is better than anything we could have hoped for. Overall, it is a really nice way to head into the summer break.”
A delighted Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance, added: “Whilst we were a bit fortunate today, the result is due to a huge amount of work at the track and the factory and the ability to put into practise everything that we have learned as a Team over the last few seasons.
“We can now begin our preparations for Belgium before taking some time off. When we return, we will attack the second part of the season with renewed confidence.”
Acronis are proud to be the official Cyber Protection Partner of the Williams Racing F1 team. To find out more, please visit https://www.acronis.com/en-us/lp/msp-sports/
THIS TEAM 😍
To our fantastic team trackside and those who have been working tirelessly back at the factory in Grove, well done and congratulations. Let's build on this! 🤝 pic.twitter.com/4iICrlRbJ7
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) August 1, 2021
Craig Scarborough
Fraser Masefield