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Alexander Albon

Albon explains shock Williams qualifying

The Williams driver equalled his best qualifying performance since Red Bull at Zandvoort.

Albon Zandvoort Wet
Article
To news overview © RN365/Michael Potts

Alex Albon has put Williams' shock Dutch Grand Prix qualifying result down to confidence in the car in the tricky conditions at Zandvoort.

Williams has been comfortably in the top ten all weekend despite initially believing it would struggle at the high downforce circuit, with both Albon and Logan Sargeant making it into Q3.

Although Albon's lap time was 0.852s off Verstappen's pole, he was only narrowly bettered by third-placed George Russell's Mercedes.

Speaking to media, including RacingNews365.com, Albon explained: "We didn't really play too much with the car after FP1 and it made me feel confident.

"When you add confidence to a track like this, which is so narrow and uncompromising and at the same time mixed conditions; wet to dry.

"You really just need to feel at one with the car and I have done this weekend."

Harder to replicate Canada result

Albon's best result this year was at the Canadian GP when he finished seventh, but he thinks it will be harder to replicate with Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez behind.

"I think our race pace was respectable in FP2, but it definitely wasn't top tier," said Albon.

"All the top tier teams are around us and I don't think there's a driver that can hold them up, they're all directly behind me. So it's gonna be a tough race.

"We can't do a Canada, we have to be quick on pure pace otherwise we will be overtaken.

"I think in the long run it's beneficial. You saw it in Spa, too much [straight line speed] and it doesn't work for our car and we overheat our tyres, so we do need a bit of downforce."

F1 2023 Dutch Grand Prix RN365 News dossier

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RESULTS 2024 F1 Belgian Grand Prix - Free Practice 2