George Russell says he had “dearly missed” winning after claiming his maiden victory in Formula 1’s Virtual 🤪Spanish Grand Prix.

Russell, who was unable to score a point for Williams dur🍒ing a tough rookieꦇ season in 2019, converted pole position into his first win in the championship’s official Esports series on Sunday evening.

The Virtual GP se🦂ries is acting as a replacement for real-world grands prix which have been put on hold due to the ongoing༒ COVID-19 pandemic.

Russell enjoyed hi⛎s first taste of victory since ꦫ;the Abu Dhabi feature race at the end of his title-winning Formula 2 campaign in 2018.

“I am feeling ecstatic. I’m not used to this winning thing,” Russell said. 💙“I’ve not done it for a long, long time so I dearly missed it.🅷”

The triumph was notඣ plain-sailing for the Briton, however, after a slow start saw him drop down the order to sixth early on.

Russell then picked up a three-second time penalty for corner cutting in his pursuit of Charles Leclerc during the closing stages,🐎 before the Ferrari driver also fell foul of the track limits regulations.

Russell overtook Leclerc on-track - who received his respective penalty on the penultimate lap - and went on to seal the win for the struggling Williams outfit which has n🐓ot won in the real world since Pastor Maldonado’s victory at the same circuit in 2012.

“When I got past Charles and I knew I had that three second penalty I was pretty furiou🐓s,” Russell explained.

“But when ✅that radio message came in 🐓at the end and I heard he had a three second penalty I was almost wetting my pants.

"I was angry and d🐠isappointed [at the penalty], I knew I had the pace around this track and ꧋I didn’t make the best start.

“Charles did a ꧂good move around the outside and I could have been much more aggressive but I thought ‘I’ll try and come back later in the race’ and I was back down in P5 and I was like ‘not ﷺagain, I’m going to have bloody Charles taking all the glory once again’ so I was pleased when I came back through.

“To be fair to Charles I think he had some issues in the middle of the race and lost a lot of time, so that helped me out and we had a good little battle at some poꦕints.”

That winning feeling

— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63)