British Formula One driver, George Russell, navigated a challenging evening in Jeddah to secure sixth place at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, adding eight points to his 2024 World Championship tally.

The 26-year-old entered the second round of F1’s current season after claiming a top-five finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix one week earlier and worked hard throughout practice to get up to speed at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit – one of the most technical venues in motorsport.

George and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team gathered critical long and short-run data throughout FP1 to set the fourth-fastest time and continued to refine performance in FP2 where George ranked second.

After identifying car balance as an area of improvement, George continued to evaluate performance in FP3 and entered Qualifying after placing fourth in the final practice window of the weekend.

He displayed encouraging pace throughout Qualifying to pave his path into Q3, posting a 1:28.749 run in Q1 before improving to a 1:28.448 in Q2 which secured his place in the top-10 shootout.

George opened the final part of Qualifying with a 1:28.316, which placed him fifth after the first round of runs, but unfortunately abandoned his final push lap – which was on course to be his best – after losing rear grip.

This placed him seventh on the grid for Saturday’s Grand Prix, and despite applying immediate pressure on Lando Norris on lap one, George was unable to make up ground off the line.

He continued to chase the McLaren driver for sixth and settled into a rhythm before a crash for Lance Stroll led to an early Safety Car on lap seven.

George took advantage of the neutralisation to pit for fresh tyres on lap eight, where he swapped his race-starting Mediums for a set of the Hard compound which he would take to the chequered flag.

Upon rejoining the race in ninth, George quickly made progress by overtaking Nico Hülkenberg for eighth and was promoted to sixth when Lewis Hamilton and Norris pitted on laps 36 and 37 of 50.

George continued to chase Fernando Alonso in the battle for fifth but was unable to overtake the Aston Martin driver, claiming sixth at the chequered flag.

The 2024 F1 season will resume on March 22-24 for the 2024 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

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George Russell, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™Team driver:

"It was a long evening out there. I spent nearly 40 laps within 1.5 seconds of Fernando Alonso but couldn’t get past. I had a slippery car on the straights, but I couldn’t get close enough in the high-speed to give him any real pressure. P6 was likely a fair result in the end and it’s clear that we haven’t found the sweet spot with this car just yet.

"Overall though, we need to find a bit more performance. We’ve seen potential and pace in the car, but we haven’t shown it when it’s mattered. We need to understand why that is and improve ahead of Melbourne. As we’ve seen, the pecking order behind the Red Bulls is very close so we need to get on top of it. There’s lots of work to do but I believe in the team."