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Russell disappointed to lose another point-scoring opportunity after being 'clobbered' by Raikkonen
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George Russell cut a frustrated figure at the Eifel Grand Prix as he ended a 32nd consecutive race without points for Williams. Even more frustrating for the Briton is that this time he thought he had a real shot at scoring - before being 'clobbered' by Kimi Raikkonen...
Russell was challenging Sebastian Vettel for P18 on Lap 13 when Alfa Romeo’s Raikkonen locked up at Turn 1 and careered into him, launching the Williams into the air before it spun into the run-off area. That left Russell with significant damage and forced another retirement.
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“The car was feeling good," said Russell. "I think we were on pace with the guys around us, we were on a slightly different strategy to the guys we were racing, so there was definitely opportunities there – racing against the AlphaTauris and with Hulkenberg behind,”
“I watched the video: Kimi lost it and clobbered into us which obviously damaged the car and gave us a puncture and too much damage to bring it home. Retired; that’s racing sometimes I guess,” he surmised.
Raikkonen received a 10-second penalty for his troubles while Russell was left ruing a missed chance to score points, in a race of attrition where regular points scorers Alex Albon and Lando Norris retired.
“Definitely a shame,” he added, “and with the way this race has panned out as well with all the sort of front to midfield runners retiring, there was definitely an opportunity there – so very frustrating.”
It’s not just Russell, but Williams who haven’t scored a point in 2020 – and Nicholas Latifi pointed out that Haas and Alfa Romeo – both of whom scored points at the Nurburgring – were far more competitive than Williams on Sunday.
“It was a challenging race today and I was pushing as hard as I could. I can’t pinpoint why exactly, we were just lacking overall pace, especially compared to the Haas and the Alfa,” concluded the Canadian.
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