George Russell turbocharged his hopes of turning into Lewis Hamilton’s subsequent Mercedes teammate with a shocking second place for Williams in a moist qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday.

The efficiency put former champions Williams, who’ve been uncompetitive for years and this month scored their first factors in System One since 2019, on the entrance row for the primary time since 2017.

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Russell was even heading for an astonishing pole till Pink Bull’s Max Verstappen pipped him on the finish.

The Briton was 0.013 seconds faster than seven-time world champion Hamilton with Valtteri Bottas, whose place the Briton might take subsequent season, qualifying solely eighth earlier than a five-place grid penalty.

Russell’s staff boss Jost Capito was fast to see the importance.

“We’d like to hold him in fact however this outcome right now, if [Mercedes boss] Toto hasn’t bought the choice completed but I feel this places him much more to Mercedes,” he mentioned.

“He is only a expertise. He deserves to be within the automotive that’s able to successful the championship and we totally help him in that,” he informed Sky Sports activities.

Wolff mentioned Mercedes already knew full nicely what Russell might do.

“I feel by now we all know the place we stand and we all know what we now have, what he can do,” the Austrian mentioned, who promised an announcement quickly. “At this time is one other affirmation.”

Russell, who’s managed by Mercedes, stood in for Hamilton in Bahrain on the finish of final 12 months when he additionally certified second. He felt the exhausting work was paying off.

“I do not know what to say. I assumed I’d have been doing an excellent job to get out of Q1 [the first phase] how we bought on yesterday,” he mentioned. “The automotive was feeling nice, I had a lot confidence.”

Williams referred to as the pictures proper tactically, Russell and staff mate Nicholas Latifi going daring on intermediates within the first section after which Russell placing all the things on one lap within the remaining crash-hit section.

“We had nothing to lose, we have been in Q3, which isn’t the norm for us, and we simply needed to go for it. We saved the total most engine mode for the final lap and determined to simply go for it,” he mentioned.