George Russell aware of podium chance: "It's a missed opportunity"

George Russell had an up and down race, ending on the up as he claimed his 10th top-five finish this season, with a fourth place in the Austrian Grand Prix. However, the Brit knows that his five-second penalty received from the opening lap incident did majorly affect his race and potentially lost him a chance to stand on the podium.

"With how the race panned out, it's a missed opportunity," he told Sky Sports in the media pen, "on my side, its very frustrating to have the first lap incident. I braked later, I braked hard and Checo had the clean line. s soon as we started to turn in, I knew we were going to have contact."

He then added how the penalty and damage received from the crash affected his race fully, "I was already on the limit of my car. Braking as hard as I could, steering as hard as I could. The contact and penalty are one thing but then the damage as well probably cost me ten seconds in the first stint. Then having a 20-second pitstop, coming out in P17 and having to overtake all these cars. Retrospectively it's okay, but I felt like I expected more."

Damage was major factor in plan for race

The Brit also expressed how the damage had a major effect on his pace until he switched his front wing, "I had damage on the left-hand side of my front wing. It felt much better (when it was switched) but also a lot more downforce. It probably cost me a second a lap. I didn't feel as fast as I was expecting."

He also expressed how upgrades have been hit and miss this year and is something to keep an eye on for future races, "when we brought an upgrade to Barcelona we took a big step forward then back to reality. Then we went to Silverstone with a number of upgrades and that was a circuit that suited our car."

He finished by stating: "I had a look at the data before coming here and we were the same pace as Lewis. Here we haven't been that fast. The next two races will be close, but as a team, we are not yet in the position to fight those two."