Formula 1

Albon hails one of ‘personal best’ races after return to the points at Belgian GP

Fraser Masefield
29 Aug 2022
3 min read

Alexander Albon was left celebrating an overdue return to the points for his Williams Racing F1 team, partnered by Acronis, as the Anglo-Thai driver finished tenth at the Belgian Grand Prix.

At a venue that has been kind to the team during its distinguished history, including George Russell’s amazing second place last year, Albon was on the pace all weekend in finishing 6th in FP1, 9th in qualifying and then converting that grid slot into points on race day.

It was another sound tactical race from the Williams key decision makers, pitting Albon for the longer lasting hard Pirelli tyres following Lewis Hamilton’s early collision with Fernando Alonso. And after pitting again to finish on the medium tyre, he held off the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll and the McLaren of Lando Norris for his third points haul of the season.

“This was one of the tougher races I’ve done in my career and also one of my personal bests,” commented Albon on his team’s press release.

“We did the best job we could today and it’s a good feeling. On the lap to the grid, it was clear that tyre degradation was going to be really high and hotter track temperatures than we have had the rest of the weekend made tyre wear worse.

“On the final stint I was thinking about three-stopping, but we held on, kept Lance [Stroll] behind and then it was about not making any mistakes.

“I think, as a whole, we executed the weekend from FP1 onwards well, maximised the positive of our car being quick on the straights, and made no mistakes. We experimented, made the best of the tyres in qualifying and maximised the results potential in the race, so I’m very happy.

“As a team, we had a complete weekend and that’s what it shows; when you don’t have the fastest car but you do everything right, you can still come away with a point or two.”

It could well have been even better for Williams Racing had Nicholas Latifi not been caught out by putting a wheel into the gravel and veering off after the first restart whilst running strongly. Nonetheless, Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson was left content with his team’s return to the points in Spa.

“We asked a lot of him (Albon) in the final stint and he was under a lot of pressure from the cars behind for whole of that stint,” added Robson. “He drove very well and played his hand without fault to deliver another hard-earned point.”

TEAM UP WITH ACRONIS

Prominent once again on the nose of the car and on the front wing endplates this season are the team’s official cyber protection partner Acronis. Williams Racing uses Acronis technology to add extra layers of protection to its IT infrastructure, protecting hundreds of servers and endpoint devices.

During the 2021 season and continuing this year, Acronis opened up an exciting #TeamUp Program, giving new and existing service providers the opportunity to support sports partnerships, join the sports ecosystem, attend races and enjoy amazing sports marketing benefits. To find out more, please visit Cyber Protection for global sports – Acronis

Williams Racing.
Spanish Grand Prix, Friday 20th May 2022. Barcelona, Spain.

Fraser Masefield

Sports news and features writer, web editor and author.

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