Williams targeting first points of 2020 F1 season in Styrian GP

The Williams Formula 1 team believes it can fight for its first points of the 2020 season following George Russell’s stellar performance in  qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix.

Russell secured the British squad’s first Q2 appearance since the 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix with a brilliant display throughout a wet qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring, and was just a tenth shy of reaching Q3 for the first time in his career.

The Briton ultimately set the 12th-fastest time but will be promoted to 11th on the grid after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was hit with a three-place grid penalty for impeding Daniil Kvyat. 

And deputy team principal Claire Williams, who described last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix as a “turning point” for her side, is confident that points “are coming”.

“I think [our] hopes have got to be points,” said Williams after qualifying. “I don’t think I would have thought I’d be saying that in race two this year.

“We wanted to make progress. I think that everybody’s efforts at Williams, whether it be track-side or at the factory, have really come together over the past weeks and months and certainly over the past 12 months. And we have demonstrated an uptick.

“Even just the work that’s been going on behind the scenes between these two Austrian races, it’s been really quite impressive. We’ve managed to resolve a lot of the issues that we found in ‘Austria one’ that now are on the car and bringing more performance.

“So points would be wonderful. But I think let’s just take each race as it comes. I know they’re coming. I know those points are on their way to us and it will be an incredibly happy day when they arrive.”

Williams last scored points at the 2019 German Grand Prix nearly 12 months ago and managed just a single point throughout the whole of last season.