Mercedes-AMG F1 Reserve Driver took his third win of the season at Paul Ricard in the F2 Feature Race, before being denied a chance to further increase his points tally due to a throttle safety issue preventing him from the taking the start in the Sprint Race at Le Castellet.

Russell heads into the upcoming ‘back-to-back’ weekend races at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone right in the hunt for the FIA F2 Championship, following a brilliant victory in the opening race at Paul Ricard in changeable conditions – where he started from his maiden pole position of the season.

After his victory in the Feature Race, a throttle sensor safety issue - which was out of the hands of both himself and his ART Grand Prix team, required him to be rushed into the pitlane before the start of the formation lap in a bid to fix the issue.
Russell finally got going and into the race, albeit two laps down on his rivals.

The issue meant this became a missed opportunity to take the lead in the Championship, which was through no fault of his own. It was made more frustrating with Russell clearly having the pace to challenge for victory in the race, had he started from his rightful grid position.

Despite the Sunday setback, Russell is in a confident mood heading in the Red Bull Ring this weekend and into his ‘home race’ at Silverstone just a week later.

George Russell “We had mixed feelings from this weekend, after taking Pole Position and winning the Feature Race, to then having the issue in the Sprint Race which meant our race was over before it even started.
Despite the setback, I am very confident in myself and the team, we have proven we have a very good car with great pace in both qualifying and the race.
We should be right up there over the next two weekends and I am very much looking forward to getting back on track!”

The Red Bull Ring was where Russell took his maiden GP3 Series victory last season, on his way to the 2017 Championship title.
This weekend will see Rounds 11 & 12 of the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship take place at the Austrian circuit, for the second weekend of the ‘Triple Header’ of races for FIA Formula 2.

One week later the championship heads back 'home' to the UK, where the BRDC Superstar will be racing in-front of plenty of local support. He will again be aiming to replicate his GP3 form from last season - where he took Pole Position and the Race One Victory 12 months ago at Silverstone.