George Russell feeling "emotional" and "weird" after scoring first Williams points

Russell in Hungary — Photo: © LAT Images

Hungarian Grand Prix

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Russell feeling "emotional" and "weird" after scoring first Williams points

Russell finished ninth in Hungarian GP

Sam Hall

Monday 2 August 2021 11:37 Updated: 18:03

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George Russell has hailed his first Williams points as the culmination of "three years of hard work" after finishing eighth in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Russell had come agonisingly close to breaking his Williams points duck on a number of occasions in the past but the weight was finally lifted from his shoulders on Sunday.

“It means more than just scoring our first points," said Russell. "It’s three years of hard work, dedication, tough moments…tough, tough moments personally and for everybody in the team.

“I’m emotional. It’s weird. It’s more than what the result showed.”

Given the near misses of the past, the Briton added: “It shows it has been worth it.

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"It shows that you should never give up and we’ve got here because when we were last every single race in 2019, we didn’t stop fighting.

"If we had stopped fighting in 2019 - now in 2021 we’ve got a faster car - and maybe we wouldn’t have been on top of our game like we were here.

“It just shows no matter the situation, there is always something to learn and you’ve just got to give it everything every time out there.”

Russell plays the team game

Prior to the first in-race pit stops, team-mate Nicholas Latifi was third. At that stage, Russell showed a willingness to sacrifice his own race to benefit the Canadian.

"If you need to compromise my race to help Nicky, do it. Prioritise Nicky," Russell said over the radio. Latifi went on to finish seventh.

Explaining the motivation, he said: “For me, it was clear. I know how much the points mean to the team and we just needed one good result out of 23 races.

"If Nicholas could have come home in the top five, that would have been enough to absolutely seal P8 in the constructors’ championship.

“The prize money, what it means to the team is huge as opposed to him coming home in P8 and me in P12."