There were mixed fortunes for Williams in the Italian Grand Prix as Alex Albon walked away from Monza with a hatful of points, while team mate Carlos Sainz was left frustrated by a difficult afternoon that saw contact and a battery issue derail his challenge.<\/p>\n
Following a difficult Qualifying that saw both cars exit in Q2, Williams<\/a> opted to split strategies for Sunday’s Grand Prix \u2013 starting Albon<\/a> on the hard tyre and Sainz<\/a> on the mediums. The former ran a long opening stint, which saw him climb up into the top 10 and run as high as fifth at times, mixing it with the leading cars.<\/p>\n Even after he pitted, Albon managed to hold onto a points paying position and was rewarded with seventh at the flag \u2013 finishing as the lead midfield car.<\/p>\n \u201cFantastic strategy and great car pace, I think those two together, you are going to have a good time of it,\u201d Albon explained as he reflected on his race.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly\u2026 It was meant to be a tough race on paper but actually we were the first hard car once everyone pitted. I don\u2019t want to call it an easy race, but the car was really nice to drive. One of the best Sundays balance-wise I\u2019ve had all year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt always seems when we run the low downforce cars, our balance improves as well. Many parts of that race we were just as quick as the top teams. It was a great comeback from a tough Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n Albon\u2019s points keep Williams clear of Aston Martin in the fight for fifth in the Teams\u2019 Championship<\/a>, while the Thai driver sits seventh in the Drivers\u2019 standings<\/a> \u2013 moving ahead of Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt proves we have a consistent car, it has been one of the biggest focus points for us last year and this year,” Albon continued. “That is proving to be working and even at the same time, even when Saturdays are miserable we end up back in the points, I don\u2019t even know how!<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll keep it going, I\u2019m enjoying it and I\u2019ll try and battle Kimi until Abu Dhabi.\u201d<\/p>\n But while Albon was left overjoyed with how his race unfolded in Italy, the same could not be said for his team mate. Sainz has endured more than his fair share of bad luck this season \u2013 and more befell the Spaniard at Monza.<\/p>\n He started on the mediums \u2013 the same strategy as the majority of the field \u2013 but a mix of a battery issue and contact with Ollie Bearman\u2019s Haas<\/a>, saw him come home in 11th \u2013 meaning he still has not scored in a Grand Prix since Canada back in June.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were the last of the medium starters I think and it was always going to be difficult to make a comeback on the same strategy as everyone in front of me but we actually extended the medium quite a long way and we were doing a good comeback on the hard,\u201d Sainz explained.<\/p>\n \u201cQuicker than Bearman in front, quicker than Bortoleto, we were going to start passing at that stage but when I went for a move with Ollie, unfortunately we touched. That pretty much ruined my race, I got damage and yeah, not the easiest race.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also ran into some battery issues so a difficult day in the office.\u201d<\/p>\n Sainz has more than once this year found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time \u2013 just last week he was penalised after contact with Liam Lawson, he made contact with Charles Leclerc at Silverstone<\/a> while brake and gearbox issues prevented him even starting the race<\/a> in Austria.<\/p>\n Sainz was asked what he can do to arrest his bad luck, with the Spaniard replying: \u201cKeep pushing, like my Qualifying pace is there, my race pace is there so at some point it will finish. But, not going to lie, it is starting to get frustrating and rather depressing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were mixed fortunes for Williams in the Italian Grand Prix as Alex Albon walked away from Monza…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-407580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115168228430417473","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}