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Albon identifies Williams ‘silver lining’ after ‘double whammy’ disappointment in Zandvoort
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Alex Albon was left understandably disappointed following a "double whammy" at the Dutch Grand Prix, but singled out a "silver lining" for Williams as a weekend of promise ultimately unraveled.
The Grove outfit's cars began the race in 18th and 19th following a gutting Saturday – Albon had been disqualified from qualifying after securing a P8 start due to his floor being too wide, while Logan Sargeant missed qualifying all together because of the extensive damage to his car following a violent crash in FP3.
With those starting positions, points were always going to be a tough ask in Zandvoort but Albon did find one big positive to take from his weekend as he revealed the upgrades brought by the team this weekend have done their job and the “car is quick.”
He tried a bold two-stop strategy on Sunday, pitting early to try and undercut his rivals before going onto fresh medium tyres late on in a bid to attack those on much older hard rubber. But ultimately it was to no avail, as he came home 14th.
“We were trying to do a comeback, in some ways, trying to make up for, obviously, the unfortunate result yesterday,” Albon said post-race. “We gave it a go, we tried a different strategy, tried to do stuff other cars weren’t doing.
Albon: 'I was feeling good' despite P14 finish at Zandvoort
“We got the undercut on a few cars, then at the same time got stuck behind a lot of cars as well, during the stint, so we never really showed any true pace. That was pretty much the race. It was a bit disappointing, obviously.
“The silver lining from the weekend is the car is quick. I think even in moments in the race when I had clean air, the pace was strong, but I didn’t have many clean laps in the race. It bodes well for Monza, a track that we’re normally pretty strong at. I’ll be interested to see if we’re still strong this year.”
When pushed on how fast his FW46 felt, Albon admitted that had he started where he qualified – in eighth position – he was confident he would have scored points.
“A doubly whammy,” is how he described the fact that, instead of bagging a couple of points, he had to watch their championship rivals Alpine score instead.
Sargeant thanked his team for rebuilding his car so that he could take part in the race on Sunday
As for Sargeant, he went into the race very short of lap time having missed qualifying entirely after his aforementioned crash. The American did also make a touching tribute to his team on his way to the grid, thanking them for their work in fixing his car on Saturday.
But with so little dry running, he was always up against it to try and move forward in the race.
“Firstly a big thank you to everyone who got the car turned around,” he said afterwards. “It’s greatly appreciated from my side as I know how much work goes into it. Nonetheless, I lacked a little bit of pace today.”
And when asked how frustrating his weekend was as a whole, he simply said “it is what it is.”
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