The Williams duo was not entirely dissatisfied with the first activities of the Formula 1 Monaco GP. Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz spoke about the challenges in Monte Carlo, but highlighted the good free practices in the Principality.
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In the first session of the day, the Anglo-Thai driver finished 11th and then ended the first day in 13th place with a time of 1min14s600. “Overall, it wasn’t a bad Friday. Obviously, there’s a lot of traffic on this circuit, especially with 22 cars, which makes it difficult to get a clear lap,” he evaluated.
“The track is a bit bumpier than last year and I also felt like I was sliding quite a bit, so the focus for tomorrow will be to get the car in a good time window. In both free practice sessions, we were around 11th position, so I’m more optimistic for tomorrow. Monaco is obviously about qualifying and one-lap pace – I think Q1 will be tricky with traffic, but hopefully we can make the most of it and put ourselves in a good starting position for the race,” he added.
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Meanwhile, Sainz finished Friday’s activities in 12th and reinforced the challenges of driving in Monaco. “Overall, it was quite an intense Friday, with many interruptions throughout the sessions due to yellow and red flags, and with 22 cars on track, traffic was tricky,” he said.
“That said, we managed to do some solid laps and more or less stick to our lap plan. At the moment, it looks like we’re just outside the top 10, so if we want to fight for Q3 tomorrow, we need everything to be perfect and we need to take a good step overnight with car and tire preparation,” he concluded.
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