George Russell, after years of patience, finally managed to place his Williams in the top 10 at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Briton drove an impeccable race, showing immense resilience against the likes of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, from the start to the checkered flag to claim an incredible P8.

And of course, an emotional after-race Russell showed how much the points meant to him and his team as well. However, what’s interesting is that Russell was ready to give up his point-scoring hope in Hungary just to help his teammate, Nicholas Latifi, who was running much higher during the early part of the race.

What did George Russell say?

During the race at Hungaroring, the lap 1 chaos ended up placing Latifi in P3, while his teammate, Russell, was down in P7.

And at that point in time, the prospects of Williams scoring a double-point finish were very much alive. However, Russell felt that his teammate could secure a much stronger finish at Hungaroring with his on-track support.

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Hence, despite the chances of scoring the first points for his team shining bright, Russell decided to notify his race engineer that he was ready to pit early and deny others from attempting an undercut on the Canadian.

“If you need to compromise my race to help Nicky, do it. I will box early to avoid the undercut for anyone else. Prioritize Nicky,” he said.

The most successful F1 race for Williams in years

Starting from P17 and P18 on a track where overtaking is definitely an almost impossible task, there was almost no chance that either of the Williams’ drivers was going to score points.

However, thanks to the lap 1 chaos, as most of the drivers crashed into each other, both Latifi and Russell found a clear path ahead of them and pushed through the debris, and found themselves in commendable positions.

From thereon, neither of them put a foot wrong, with the pit wall, too, making decent strategic calls for their drivers. And, ultimately, their efforts paid off; Latifi and Russell came home in P8 and P9, respectively.

Then came the news from the stewards’ office about Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification, which pushed both of them a place higher. Hungarian GP marked Williams’ first double-point finish since the 2018 Italian GP, ending their two-year drought.

Also, last weekend was Williams’ highest point-scoring finish (10) since the 2017 Azerbaijan GP, where Lance Stroll secured his first F1 podium, handing the team a wealthy 15 points.

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