Russell: Williams' relative pace was actually pretty strong

The 2018 Formula 2 champion finished the race in 14th, ahead of his teammate and just 1.859 seconds adrift of Esteban Ocon in 13th.

Williams certainly appear to have jumped ahead of Haas in the running order, but will still need to make progress in order to become a more serious player in the battle for points.

Reflecting on his first outing in 2021, Russell said that the team's relative pace was "actually pretty strong", while also acknowledging that the first stint was "tricky".

“I think it was a pretty well-executed race to be honest,” Russell said after the race. “I think we toughed it out one lap too many in the middle stint - that’s when I had that little battle with Kimi - you know what it’s like when he’s on fresher tyres and we lost three or four seconds or so due to that, which was a bit unfortunate, but it wouldn’t have changed our outcome.

"And I think given the pace of the car, given the conditions, I think it was a very well-executed weekend and that was probably the maximum we could have expected. As I said, it’s going to be a bit of a yo-yo season, and I do think this is probably the worst-case scenario so fingers cross it gets better from here.

“It was nice to be racing. I had a good little tussle at the beginning, made a few places, lost a few places - I forgot how tricky it was right in that battle with all the cars surrounding you! But I thought it was a very well-executed race.

“The first stint was tricky but I think the second and third stints were as good as can be and our relative pace was actually pretty strong. So that’s where we were this weekend and we need to reassess in Imola.”

F1 travels to Imola for the second race of the season on April 18, a track that Russell said is "very different" to the Bahrain International Circuit where pre-season testing and the opening Grand Prix were held.

“Imola’s the next race and it’s very different to Bahrain so you’re going from two ends of the spectrum," he added.

“Bahrain’s got a lot of slow speed corners, very exposed, generally very windy. Imola is a lot of high-speed corners, the angle of those corners are less - more 90-degree corners as opposed to 180-degree corners as we see here - and it’s very enclosed with all the trees and the buildings around.

“So we’re going between two extremes really. I’m not necessarily saying Imola is at the top end but it’s in the top half, let’s say.”