Russell says Williams 'there on merit' after missing Q3 by 0.008s

Williams' George Russell missed out on a spot among the top ten in qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix by just 0.008s after a strong performance that he says was achieved "on merit".

However he will actually start the race from tenth on the grid after a penalty for impeding another driver was subsequently handed down to AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda.

Russell secured his place in Q2 for the eighth consecutive race on Saturday at the Red Bull Ring and came painfully close to gaining access to the final Q3 shootout.

Upon learning of the 0.008s shortfall from his engineer, the Briton quipped: "Oh, you're kidding me! Good job anyway. Free tyre choice."

It was indeed a great effort by the Williams charger who out-qualified Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo and Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel.

But Russell especially highlighted the performance level of his FW43B, insisting his fastest lap was achieved "on merit" and after the team had focused on fine tuning the car's race pace.

"So close, so satisfying when we get the maximum from it, and we do this a lot," he said.

"And even more so, we’re putting a lot more emphasis on the Sunday pace and just trying to really maximise the car for the race pace. So let’s see how it turns out tomorrow.

"I think we are there on merit. We’ve got a lot of quick guys behind – Ricciardo, Sainz, Vettel – but I’m looking forward and we want to score some points."

• Read also: Russell 'quite happy' to stay at Williams if shunned by Mercedes

Russell said that a new set-up approach initiated a few races weekends ago appeared to benefit its car as well as the circumstances.

"We’ve gone down a slightly different direction with the set-up and it seems to be paying off," he explained.

"But we’ve only had a couple of races like this. We need to give it a bit more of a chance to see if this is real, throughout.

"But having that confidence in the car is a big thing and today’s a very calm day, not a single gust of wind or anything, I’m sure that does also help us a lot. So far, so good.

"Yesterday was probably the best Friday we’ve ever had," he said. "The car felt really good, let’s see how that translates tomorrow."

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