Alex Albon claims that the wind at Zandvoort performed an vital function in getting his Williams on to the second row of the grid.
Whereas Max obtained pole and Lando the plaudits, absolutely the true star of qualifying was Alex Albon, who week after week serves discover that he has been cruelly undervalued.
Although his teammate, Logan Sargeant got here to grief after dipping a wheel on a moist patch, thereby inflicting one of many session’s red-flag, he nonetheless qualifies tenth, that means that Williams was one in every of solely 4 groups to get each its automobiles in to the entrance 5 rows.
Talking after the session, as self-effacing as ever, Albon most popular to pay credit score to the Zandvoort wind for his spectacular efficiency.
“There’s been this headwind in a variety of these sorts of low-speed corners, braking corners,” he informed Sky Sports activities, “and we at all times wrestle with low-speed braking.
“Whenever you’ve obtained this headwind, it makes every thing really feel higher,” he continued, “it offers you that entrance load on the automobile and hopefully that wind’s not altering tomorrow, I hope.
“It is hidden the traditional issues that we’ve got in our automobile,” he stated. “The tailwind corners have been usually high-speed corners the place our automobile has by no means been that unhealthy at, so I feel there’s a component of that happening.”
Certainly, going into the weekend the crew’s engineers had apparently factored potential wind patterns on the monitor’s numerous corners into the simulations.
“Flip 9, Flip 11 have at all times been horrible corners for us, corners the place we have been shedding two tenths every nook,” stated Albon. “And with the headwinds… half a tenth, possibly.
“So, I feel that is helped us quite a bit. Much more than regular. We really drove these winds on the simulator. We do mess around with it. We knew this wind was good for our automobile. However we obtained it, which is sweet.”
“Going into FP1, we observed the automobile stability was in a superb place, the tyres have been in a superb place,” added crew boss, James Vowles. “That offers you one thing to construct on instantly. So, from FP1 onwards, we knew there was a greater shot than regular.
“However the situations at this time definitely favoured us,” he admitted. “Do I feel we’ve got a automobile that in regular dry situations would have been fourth? No. However Alex and the crew delivered every thing at this time. It was a really spectacular end result.”
Try our Saturday gallery from Zandvoort here.
