Russell ranks Imola a "top half" track for Williams

George Russell believes Imola is one of Williams' best opportunities to shine after Bahrain highlighted the difficulties of the FW43B.

In the opening race of the year, Russell finished 14th whilst team-mate Nicholas Latifi retired with a suspected boost leak.

Despite Russell reaching Q2 on Saturday, the Briton believes Imola presents a far better opportunity than Bahrain for Williams to secure a strong result.

“I think, firstly, because Imola is the next race and it is very different to Bahrain," he said.

"You go from two ends of the spectrum where Bahrain has got a lot of slow-speed corners, is very exposed and is generally very windy. Imola has higher speed corners, the angle of those corners is less as in 90-degree corners rather than 180-degree corners and is very enclosed with all the trees and the buildings around.

“We’re going from two extremes really. I’m not necessarily saying Imola will be at the top end but it will be in the top half let’s say.”

At Imola last year Russell spun and made contact with the concrete walls whilst lapping behind the safety car. When he made the error, the Williams driver had been running inside the top 10 and looked on course to achieve his first points finish for the team.

Ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Russell said the Williams had extracted the maximum out of its car in the Bahrain season-opener.

“I thought it was a pretty well-executed race to be honest," he added. "I think we toughed it out one lap too many in the middle stint and that is where I had the little battle with Kimi when he was on fresher tyres and unfortunately I lost about three seconds or so due to that which was a bit unfortunate.

“But it wouldn’t have changed our outcome and I think given the pace of the car, given the conditions, I think it was a very well executed weekend. It was probably the maximum we could have expected."

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