Williams managed to see positive points from the qualifying of the Dutch Grand Prix of Formula 1. This Saturday (22), Alexander Albon said he had done his best lap in some time, while Carlos Sainz felt the car was better.
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For the race in Zandvoort, the newly renewed Anglo-Thai managed to advance to Q2 and thus will start from 16th position. “I’m satisfied with that lap in Q2; we made some changes that worked between the Sprint and qualifying, so the balance was better, but we still have difficulties with pure aerodynamic pressure. I think I didn’t extract the maximum in Q1, but I definitely did in Q2; it was probably the most complete lap I’ve done in some time,” he said.
“We got into a better rhythm today and were more consistent on the laps, so at least we left a Haas and the two Aston Martin cars behind us for tomorrow. We still need to understand why our initial setup was so off, as it’s something we can evolve from. With a better setup, maybe we can better preserve the tires, which will be important tomorrow since wear was high in the Sprint. Overtaking is harder in Zandvoort, so I expect varied strategies regarding tires and multiple stops during the race. We’ll see what Sunday holds for us,” he added.
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Meanwhile, the Spaniard, who also recently renewed his contract, was close to getting out of Q1, but even without advancing to the next phase, was happy with what he did. “Sprint weekends don’t leave much time to solve problems, and we used the Sprint race practically as a practice, testing different things to improve balance.”
“This afternoon, the car felt better, and the changes we made made driving more comfortable. My lap was good, and we missed Q2 by a very small margin. Tomorrow, we will do our best to get everything right and have a clean race, extracting the maximum from our car and seeing where that takes us,” he concluded.
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