Williams present in full
Twenty-four hours after Logan Sargeant's accident in FP1, with the related fears for the risk of not taking part in the race due to the absence of a reserve chassis, the Williams showed up regularly with both drivers for both FP2 and qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. In this circumstance, nothing unscheduled occurred, but the final result still did not bring smiles to the Grove team, three times winner on this track in the 90s (the first success dating back to 1992 with Riccardo Patrese).
Albon stops in Q2
While Sargeant will start from the last row of the starting grid, al 19th place and in front of Zhou Guanyu, Alex Albon instead he managed to overcome the obstacle of Q3. However, the Anglo-Thai driver stopped at the end of Q2 and at 14th placein front of Esteban Ocon's Alpine, venting all his disappointment: “This weekend we struggled a lot and I didn't feel comfortable with the carwhich is frustrating, but it's where we expected to be – explained the former Red Bull – the way we chose the car improved some corners, but also made others worse. You cannot slip on this circuit, because the track is very aggressive and tears the tyres. Usually, when the track is smooth, we can do without this, but when it is rough like this, we pay a pretty high price. I also suffered from severe overheating and when you have to manage the tires in corners to save them, it's difficult to manage. Looking forward to tomorrow, the car went well in the few long runs that we did during FP3, but the strategy will be important, so let's see how we go.”
Sargeant in the back row
Little to say for Sargeant, satisfied with having completed qualifying without problems and not far from accessing Q2: “After what happened yesterday and after only doing a few laps in FP3 this morning, it was a nice turnaround – commented – we put the car in a good position for qualifying, considering the limited number of laps, and made the right decisions. I don't think there was much that could be done. A tenth and a half from Q2 shows how tight the situation is. I'm pretty happy with how I rode, but this weekend we lack a bit as a team in terms of pace. Tomorrow will be a slightly more degraded race and the management of sector 1 will be fundamental. We will try to make a good start, manage the race and hope to have a good position.”
#Albon #14th #qualifying #expected
