ANALYSIS: George Russell recorded the quickest race lap at the Hungaroring

Despite enduring a tough qualifying session and thus a difficult race at last weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, George Russell secured the additional championship point for setting the quickest race lap in the Budapest F1 round.

After the great successes of the last few races, the Hungarian GP was a relatively sobering experience for Mercedes. Although Lewis Hamilton at least secured another podium, George Russell had to settle for a modest eighth place in a Grand Prix that had already been severely compromised by Saturday’s quali. He did, however, have the consolation prize of the DHL Fastest Lap.

The field encountered a light drizzle in the first round of qualifying. Although the intensity of rain was not enough for the drivers to use the intermediate tyres, but they faced challenging conditions with tyre warm-up having become a tough element to master.

Russell looked vulnerable all through the session as he was unable to find the rhythm on the surface that offered less grip than in the previous sessions of the weekend. In the end, he was knocked out of the opening segment of qualifying, and started the race only from a disappointing P17 after his pole position at the British Grand Prix.

With Sergio Perez crashing out in Q1 and thus starting from P16, the Briton was locked in a race-long battle with the Mexican in the Mogyoród F1 round.

Russell overtook the Red Bull on the first lap, but he later lost the position again due to an undercut. Russell’s attempt to catch up with the Red Bull driver in the final stint on fresher tires earned him the DHL Fastest Lap (1:20.305) and the bonus point, but not the position.

“We knew after yesterday’s issues in qualifying that we were likely aiming for ‘best of the rest’ today,” said Russell after the race.

“We struggle a little more in these very hot conditions, so we weren’t quite able to achieve that. The Red Bull of Sergio Perez was quicker than we expected, but we gave it a good go to get ahead of him. Getting P8 and fastest lap was still a solid recovery.”

Williams driver Logan Sargeant posted the second-quickest race lap at the Hungaroring. The Miami-born racer recorded a 1m20.561s on Pirelli's soft tyres to beat Max Verstappen, who set the third-quickest lap with a 1m20.908s on the yellow-banded mediums en route to fifth place.