Albon all smiles after ‘fun’ British GP and top-ten result
Williams charger Alex Albon says he emerged from last weekend’s challenging British Grand Prix a satisfied driver after securing a ninth place finish and a couple of valuable points for his team.
Despite a solid qualifying performance that placed him ninth on the grid, Albon's race at Silverstone started off on the wrong foot after a contact with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
The run-in pushed Albon sent him tumbling down to P12 where he remained for the majority of his opening stint on the medium tyre.
But strong strategic execution by Williams’ crews coupled with a solid effort by the Anglo-Thai racer despite the perilous conditions eventually brought the latter back into the top ten.
“It was good fun out there,” commented a visibly delighted Albon after the Grand Prix. “It was a race where we started off quite poorly – I had a decent start, but Fernando just had an even better one next to me.
“I don’t really remember what happened in Turn 3 but we made contact, [in] Turn 4 made more contact. [I] jumped to P12, I think it was, and then had to fight back.
“The rain was coming, so we always knew there was a chance to get back into the race and, once it fell and all the cars kind of started coming off the circuit and whatnot, you kind of lick your lips a little bit!
“It was inters, the final stint had really good pace, good strategy on the mediums, and [I] had a lot of fun out there.
“The car was really good at the end there, one of the best it’s felt in a long, long time. So, yeah, it was good fun.”
Albon acknowledged the importance of the points and the overall positive performance for the team, praising the strategy calls and tyre choices that ultimately secured them a strong result.
“I think on the inters we could have pitted one lap earlier, but it was always that kind of awkward threshold,” he said.
“We timed the second one perfectly, and also tyre choice – I think a lot of guys went on the softs as we went on the mediums, and it just meant I could push really hard for the 13, 14 laps left in the race.
“[I also] got Yuki [Tsunoda] under pressure a little bit, had a good fight with him.”
On the other side of the Williams garage, Logan Sargeant was also very happy with how his weekend had unfolded.
On Saturday, the young American delivered his best qualifying performance of the season, securing a strong P12 on the grid.
While he ultimately fell just short of a points finish on Sunday, crossing the line in eleventh, Sargeant remained upbeat about his performance.
“It was a good race, to be honest,” commented the 23-year-old. “I think I executed everything really well.
“It was a bit of a shame we were too close on that first inters stop and we had to stack. [We] lost quite a bit of time there, and didn’t quite have the pace on the inter tyre, just was struggling a lot with degradation.
“Probably boxed a lap late to get back on the slicks but, yeah, easy in hindsight. I think we did a good job all things considered, kept it together in tricky conditions and gave ourselves a chance.”
Sargeant had no doubts that he had put together one of his strongest race weekends of the season.
“Yeah, 100%,” he said. “I was really quick today on the slick tyre. I’m happy with what we’ve done, I’m happy with the direction we went with the car – I think it was a good improvement.
“But yeah, still one spot shy which is annoying, but maybe someone will get chucked out like last time!”
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