Albon disappointed with P8: 'Top six was possible'

Alexander Albon has conceded that he is feeling somewhat disappointed despite scoring a valuable P8 result for Williams at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Albon enjoyed a strong outing during qualifying to line up in fourth place for the start of the race.

The Thai-British driver was one of the few drivers who opted to stay out on dry weather tyres when heavy rain pelted the track on the opening lap.

Although it cost him pace, it meant he lost less time through pit stops compared to many of his rivals.

At the end of the race, Albon found himself in eighth place to take his fourth point-scoring result of the year - although he says it could've been more.

“I have to remind myself to be happy,” Albon said. “We were running P5 at the start and then the rain came.

“We didn’t do the optimal thing of pitting early for the Intermediate tyre but then we did the right thing to stay out and really hang it out there and really make it last.

“We had a great stint on the Soft tyres, we had a great stint on the Medium tyres. Overtaking the Mercs, it was great, everything was going well.”

Albon rues late call for final stop

Albon says that he made a mistake in not pitting early enough when rain came once again towards the end of the race.

“We were running in P6, I was catching P5 and P4,” he said. I thought it was going to be an amazing race and we were going to finish here.

“Then the team told me it’s going to rain again, I was like ‘OK here we go’. Honestly, I think in some ways, we played it a little bit safe and stayed out a bit too long.

“We lost out to the other cars, partly me to blame I think. I did half a lap and thought ‘they’ve pitted too early, I’ve nailed them’.

“Then in three corners it chucked it down so hard. It went from a slick to a wet in 20 seconds. That was it.

“All in all, it’s the best the car has felt all year, it’s the best the car has ever felt in my time at Williams.

“It’s a great day. P8 is disappointing because P6 was there. But I have to be happy.”

Next up on the schedule is the Italian Grand Prix, where Williams had one of its most competitive outings last year.

Albon has long highlighted that Monza will be a strong circuit for its current car.

But following his impressive outing at Zandvoort, a track that is vastly different to Monza, Albon has admitted he is feeling confused over the car's potential.

“It almost confuses things. It almost goes against the grain completely about what our car is,” he said.

“I do think Monza is going to be competitive for us. What can we learn from this weekend and apply it to next weekend?

“There is a couple of set up things that we did this weekend that I think helped.

“But honestly if we can match the pace we had this weekend to next weekend, we’ve still overperformed to where we thought the car would be even in Monza.”