Albon: “Very intelligent move by Haas to keep the group” | FP

Williams close to the points

Sauber, Racing Bulls and Alpine. Also added to the 'club' of teams that have not yet scored points in these first two GPs of the 2024 season is Williamsa team that still came very close to the top-10 with Alexander Albon In the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Two factors, in particular, denied the Anglo-Thai driver the opportunity to obtain his first satisfactions in this championship.

Magnussen's nightmare

Elements that both respond to the name of Kevin Magnussen. After attempting to overtake the latter at the start of the race, Albon was hindered by the Dane, also damage to the car. For this reason (as well as another infringement in the following laps), Magnussen suffered a time penalty, but blocked the riders behind him with excellent defense and allowed his teammate, Nico Hülkenberg, to cut the finish in tenth place.

Compliments to rivals

Points zone thus vanished for Albon, 11th in the standings due to the 20 seconds then taken away from Magnussen: “It's frustrating not to be able to fight for points – commented – there Haas did a great job with the strategy, using Kevin to hold the group, a very intelligent action. Unfortunately, we didn't have the necessary speed and suffered damage to the front wing, so we struggled to advance through the field. We had a better race car than we showed today, so now we focus on improving for Australia.”

Regrets for Sargeant

Further back, al 15th placeWilliams' second Logan Sargeant. Author of a good performance in the first half of the race, the American's pace subsequently dropped, a fact that prevented the #2 from being able to actually get close to the points zone after recovering the pace in the final: “It was a decent race, with 35 good laps – has explained – However, in the last 15 laps we didn't have the necessary pace. I was starting to explore the potential towards the end of the race, but it was a little too late. If I had realized this earlier, we could have gained more of a gap, but I will look into it and see what I can do to improve. With the higher pace throughout the race, I am confident we can unlock further potential for Australia.”