Reflective Russell out to atone for Imola error

George Russell hopes to put his Imola error firmly behind him with a strong performance at the Turkish Grand Prix.

Russell was running inside the top ten during a late safety car period at Imola and looked to be in a strong position to score his first Formula 1 points, but ahead of the restart the Briton spun up his rear tyres while warming the rubber and swerved into an unforgiving concrete wall, bringing his race to an unfortunate premature end.

Visibly upset at his error, one which left Williams rooted to the foot of the constructors' table with a zero score for the year to date, Russell received messages of support from his rivals, including one from championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

"It has been good to have a week off to reflect on what happened at Imola and learn from my mistake," said Russell.

"The recent performance from the car has been really encouraging and I am looking forward to seeing what we can achieve. Overall, I am feeling stronger and prepared to fight back this weekend."

He added: "I am excited to get back racing in Turkey, and for the challenge of driving at a new circuit."

Team-mate Nicholas Latifi also put in a strong showing at Imola, eventually coming home 11th, just one place away from registering his first F1 point.

Sharing Russell's excitement for the Istanbul layout, Latifi said: "I am super excited to get to Istanbul and hit the track there. It is probably one of the newer tracks on the calendar that I was most looking forward to driving.

"I think it is the only one that I haven’t been to, so it’s always nice as a driver to have the challenge of finding your way around the track.

"From whenever I watched it when they used to race there, it always looked like a fun one.

"As always this creates a new opportunity for us, with teams not having recent data. I am excited to try and capitalise on that, and hopefully we have a good weekend."

Before you go...

Racing Point ready for “one last big push” to secure third in constructors' fight

Kvyat driving blind in Turkey due to Covid restrictions

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