George Russell claims F3 European podium for Carlin

This weekend saw George Russell and has Carlin team head to the legendary Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium for Round Five of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship season.

 Qualifying left the young Brit frustrated as both sessions were compromised by flags and mistakes from other drivers. George said;

 "We were extremely unlucky in qualifying, on my best two laps before the rain came in qualifying 1, the driver way ahead of me made a mistake and came on right infront of me which compromised me a lot. I was fairly certain P3 was possible but we had to settle for P11.

 Then for Q2 it was a drying track, and on my best lap, the red flag came out 3 seconds before I crossed the line, so I had my best lap deleted."

 Race 1 saw a lighting start, pushing George up to 6th place overall.

 Race 2 was turbulent to say the least, a number of incidents rested in only 3 race laps overall. Starting 22nd on the grid gave George little chance to push his way up the field.

 Race 3 saw some excellent race craft and tyre management, resulting in a 3rd place finish.

 On the race George said,

 "It was a 50 50 call with slicks or wets, but we opted for slicks which turned out to be the right call.

 We started P21 and made a great start. From then on we kept on pushing and we had great pace. I was catching the guys ahead of me and managed to get passed them quickly. Before we knew it we was in the battle for P3 and managed to pull it off.

 It was a great result to come away with a podium after such an unlucky qualifying, but now we can go to the next race and really push for more."


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