George Russell says "we're just being realistic" on Williams' hopes

George Russell is encouraged by the fact that the gap to the midfield had decreased at the Spanish Grand Prix and will hope that the gap will be closer during the race as well. Williams have struggled so far this season but will hope that this marks a point where their fortunes change. 

"Overall our pace has looked slightly stronger this weekend than anticipated and I was feeling confident in FP3," said Russell to GPToday.

"But then obviously putting [the car] into the wall was probably not great for my confidence into qualifying. But I was pleased with that final lap.

"The fact that everybody has brought their big upgrades and we haven't really brought anything to the car, just a few little test items to try to understand the car better, is encouraging."

"Perhaps we optimized for qualifying more than the guys just ahead of me did but there's no reason yet we can't be on the back of them in the opening laps and see what happens later in the race," he stated.

"But at the moment we're just being realistic. It would be silly to go out there and expect points or anything, so we have to go out there and use each session as a test session really and try to understand stuff for later in the year."

Russell will hope for another solid race and will be desperate for the gap to remain small between Williams and the midfield teams.